DESCRIPTION:
Soft Hearted Scientists are unsung heroes of Fruits de Mer (until now) - they somehow manage to combine influences from sixties psychedelia, acoustic folk, British music-hall, gothic horror, Welsh folklore and more...creating songs of love, affection, mystery and imagination.
Superb vocals, wonderfully-crafted songs, intricate, extended instrumentals - they've got the lot. They've also had more than their fair share of bad luck over the years and it's not about to change now they're working with Fruits de Mer.
'Whatever Happened To The Soft Hearted Scientists' combines some of FdM's favourites from their CD releases to-date, together with a title track specially recorded for this compilation, a preview of songs from their forthcoming album AND a 7" of previously-unreleased demos...welcome to their world.
(incidentally, It was supposed to be a single album but, hard as I tried to whittle the tracks down, i just couldn't get down to less than 95 minutes of music, so it's turned into a sprawling monster of a double album + 7" ep - sorry, but not a minute of it is wasted and not a minute of it has appeared on vinyl, until now.

Road to Rhayader' is from the SHS album, 'Wandermoon'.

find out more at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com.


Everyday Imaginings :
Soft Hearted Scientists And The Subtle Art Of Serendipity

Since their emergence as fully-fledged bona fide recording artistes in 2005,
Soft Hearted Scientists have been unassumingly going about from
their Cardiff research facility quietly and methodically piecing together a
discography characterised by an intriguingly deep pool of sources and
influences, inventive songwriting, subject matter that alternates the
off-beat with the everyday, a sophisticated ear for atmospherics, a
willingness to tinker and engage with the wonderful world of all things
experimental and maybe most important of all - a belief in the
transforming power of the imagination.
Over time, the chapter of the Soft Hearted have proved themselves to be
neither by temperament or inclination the sorts to go about boldly
proclaiming their inflated sense of their own worth from the rooftops but have
rather opted to gradually reveal their magic to all those willing to
listen in a slow-burning, unhurried kind of way shaped and defined by
their ability to build and manipulate mood and texture. Seasoned by
whimsy, pathos, an appreciation of the musically antique and obscure
and a unmistakably British sense of the banal and the eccentric (where
else are you likely to hear such a heartfelt reappraisal of the theme
from The Likely Lads ?), that brings with it echoes and resonances of
voices as iconic and diverse as Ivor Cutler, Donovan, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Syd, The Beatles and The Bonzos, the sound of the Soft Hearted Scientists in full flight is indeed a intoxicatingly rich blend for your enchantment and edification.
With their highly bespoke approach to writing, recording and presenting their
assorted musings in hi-fi you could argue that the Soft Hearted
Scientists have momentarily at least discovered their spiritual home
among the enchanted waters that are home to Fruits de Mer given the
label's appetite for all things idiosyncratic and its steadfast and celebrated
commitment to releasing its diverse and ever expanding catalogue
entirely on limited edition vinyl.
A marriage made in retro-formatted heaven is how you might describe
the addition of the Soft Hearted Scientists to the Fruits De Mer
family. What's beyond question however is that the sumptuously dimensioned
anthology of sounds past and (some) new that you now hold in your hands
couldn't be appearing on a more appropriate label than the collector-friendly cottage industry operation that is Fruits De Mer.
Back in 2007, Soft Hearted Scientists gave sound advice to one and all with the
title of their long player Take Time To Wonder In A Whirling World.
Welcome now to a banquet-sized ration of wondering time. Wonder on ...

Grahame Bent
Shindig! Magazine