POSTS TAGGED : Soft Hearted Scientists

Soft Hearted Scientists Share New Double A Side Single ‘The Creeps/ Zeds’

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Cardiff based psychedelic collective Soft Hearted Scientists have returned with a brand new double A side single ‘The Creeps/ Zeds’, out August 12th.

Always insidiously brilliant, the collective released their new double album Golden Omens (their seventh LP!), from which both tracks are taken from. ‘The Creeps’ is a glorious tapestry of dark-psych-pop – a seductive, smouldering brew of cosmic synths, watery keys, light percussion, gentle acoustic guitars, hushed, purring harmonies and all manner of sound effects – that delivers a spectacular kaleidoscopic, spectral midnight hour adventure. The most apt description is most likely their own, a “tip of the hat to “Moon Safari” era Air, with added Greek chorus choir, and BBC Radiophonic workshop sound effects”. Whatever the case, those lushly toned, haunting and woozy sounds are utterly mesmerising.

‘The Creeps’ and its companion ‘Zeds’, is out now, along with their new album, Golden Omens. For more info etc. just click here.

Soft Hearted Scientists – ‘The Ups And The Downs’

Everyone loves a nice surprise right? Like when you find twenty quid stuffed in the pocket of your jeans after the weekend. Yeah, result!

Well that’s how today felt when it was discovered that ever charming Welsh psych-folk ensemble Soft Hearted Scientists, only went and released a new album – The Slow Cyclone. Released back in late September, it is their sixth LP to date and is comprised of a staggering 24 tracks, a mix of full songs, instrumentals and tiny interludes, divided into 4 groups of 6 tracks. The first single to be taken from their rather hefty LP is ‘The Ups And The Downs’. It is a typically endearing number with a cosmic mix of jaunty acoustic chiming, stunning harmonies, extremely clever wordplay and unusual lyrics; dealing with Alexander the Great, the horrors of typecasting for Basil Rathbone who played a great Sherlock Holmes (“It made his name, brought global fame, but turned him into stone”), the trauma of domestic conflict, and the consolation of domestic panther purrs. A wonderfully whimsical mix of the tongue-in-cheek with the surreal – just marvelous, simply marvelous.

You can check ‘The Ups And The Downs’ below and buy it here. You sample more from the album here too.

Introducing: Soft Hearted Scientists

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Ah, wonderful Wales. With Ireland you can put your house on it raining but the same could be said for Wales and weirdly wonderful psychedelic bands. Following along a path laid by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals, to name but two, are Cardiff based psych folk collective Soft Hearted Scientists. 

Their psychedelic-tinged folk owes much the heady days of ’60s and ’70s too. The collective’s trippy warped out and downright weird sounds are dripping with genuinely appealing eccentricity and sugar sweet melodies, grounded, only just, by musings of everyday life. A madcap of delights that if comparisons were needed, one might arrive at something like the lyrical depth, wordplay and acerbic wit of Half Man Half Biscuit, meets the off-the-wall antics of Syd Barrett and seductive sounds of Donavan or The Byrds. All in all, it is wonderful, bizarre and seductive in equal measures. These are songs which will burrow into the inner reaches of your mind.

With three albums under their belts already, they are hardly newbies but as album number four, entitled False Lights, is on the horizon it is a timely introduction to their wonderful psych folk delights.