PARSLEY SOUND Vinyl & CDs

Review: Ultra-vintage reissued psych-pop from Parsley Sound, whose self-titled debut for Mo Wax was one of the label's most prized releases, and yet ended up massively inflated in price due to early sellouts and low pressing numbers. The duo / band made up of Danny Sargassa and Preston Mead are deft emulators of full-band sonics, producing the illusion of a wider ensemble; Parsley Sounds followed the early EPs 'Ease Yourself And Glide' and 'Twilight Mushrooms', but was comparatively much softer on the ears, charming the listener with its herbal pan flutes, downtempo era string segments, and not-too-heavy 70s throwback haunto-pysch cult propulsions. Clearly an early influence of now colossal cognates of the sound like Caribou and Four Tet, Parsley Sounds is essential heads' listening for those who wish to lead a certain uncanny, chintzy still life, yet who also know something of the restless beauty of said life. A5er 'Ocean House' is the expansive ballad that proves this, finding a lo-fi yet cavernous vocal opportunity in an otherwise claustrophobic cranny of sound.