Parsley Sounds

2024 first vinyl reissue, one of final releases ever on Mo Wax, 140g vinyl.

Parsley Sounds was the glorious debut album for Mo Wax by Parsley Sound. The album was one of the iconic label’s final releases before it closed in 2003 and locaQng a clean copy has been extremely tricky of late, unless you're flush enough to drop 150 notes on it. Mercifully, the Be With reissue, put together with invaluable assistance from the group, should remedy this situaQon. It's a lo-fi, bass-heavy, blunted beat treat, warped with heat haze and dreamy sor-psych and has been criminally under-heard for far too long.

As with most cult-like records, Parsley Sounds has many influenQal fans, far and wide. From Four Tet and Caribou to NTS's modern day breakfast hero Flo Dill, its reputaQon has only grown in stature. At the Qme, the notoriously hard-to-please Pitchfork garlanded it with a scarcely achievable 8.8 whilst, just recently, the Numero Group's Rob Sevier described it as a "visionary bit of proto-Salvia Palth (or Steve Lacy)" via a Ghostly InternaQonal missive.

Parsley Sound comprised super-talented duo Preston Mead and Dan Sargassa. They released an early single (the perfect "Twilight Mushrooms", featured here) on Warp

Records as Slum, before signing to Mo Wax. Hidden behind a wall of sound - fuzzy layers of beats, bleeps and symphonic synths - they were convinced they made mainstream pop music. And, in many respects, Parsley Sounds really is a beauQful pop album. It overflows with memorable, gorgeous melodies and inspired songcrar. Killer opener "Ease Yourself And Glide" is a thing of aching, sor-psych, wonky beatbeauty. A melodic masterpiece, part Crosby, SQlls & Nash, part proto-Koushik, it presents a melancholy false2o, surging bass and blunted lead guitar. As it climaxes, gorgeous strings are ushered in to see us out. Sublime. "Twilight Mushrooms" is up next and it's an acid-drenched, strung-out acousQc-led campfire wonder. Amid layers of tape-hiss and beauQful, sun-dappled strings, its understated vocal track provides a haze of wis}ul innocence.

The breezy "Spring's Near" is a krautrock-inspired chiming instrumental of heavenly excellence, its warm, skipping, motorik groove and dreamy synths completely infecQous. Another total highlight, the technicolour "Yo Yo" iniQally presents itself as a more abstract, bleepy offering but as it organically swells into ever more beauQful places, with the addiQon of a choppy insistent drum loop, flute bursts, horns and sweeping strings, it puts one in mind of early Manitoba and Four Tet releases. Shimmering, blissed-out greatness.

The celesQal harmonies and glistening harps of the wonderfully beatless, serenely sullen "Ocean House" are very much in conversaQon with late-60s meditaQve psych whilst, closing out Side A, the jaw-dropping, lushly experimental effort "Find The Heat" comes on like Arthur Russell meets Brian Wilson. Yep, *that* good.

Side B opens with the warped, bleepy "Stevie", a brief but beauQfully wonky, soulful and intricate instrumental. The more upfront vocals that propel the fuzzy "Platonic Rate" have a refreshing swagger to them, the heavy bass and neck-snapping in-thered beats too much for any system to deal with whilst the guitars and strings have a sweeping, cinemaQc feel which just beguiles. The slow, urbane soul of "Candlemice" will stop you in your tracks, no ma2er what you're doing. It carries a delicate sadness, as does much of the album in that classic "down liring" style we so love here at Be With.

The fuzzing, buzzing "Templechurchmansions" is a searing, soulful dubwise detonaQon. Heavily stoned with slow-burning jazzy snatches and a tense, moody atmosphere, it's a Tricky-adjacent gem. The album rounds out brilliantly with the ominous instrumental "Neon Breeze" before giving way to the propulsive, almost incongruous punk-funk / disco-dub of secret "unQtled" track "CauQon", a scratchy, smacked-out groove-fuelled workout with a female vocal dripping with 'tude. Just sensaQonal.

Under the watchful eye - and a2enQve ears! - of Parsley Sound themselves, the audio for Parsley Sounds has been carefully mastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the arQst's wishes. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland.

Preston and Dan always thought the colours on the first vinyl pressing looked a bit "washed out" vis-a-vis the original artwork which was way more vibrant. We feel we've got it popping back to the original intenQon with the restoraQon work here at Be With HQ. So with the audio and artwork now approaching completeness arer 20 years, this long overdue re-issue could be considered its definiQve vinyl release. 

A1 Ease Yourself And Glide A2 Twilight Mushrooms A3 Spring's Near A4 Yo Yo A5 Ocean House A6 Find The Heat B1 Stevie B2 Platonic Rate B3 Candlemice B4 Templechurchmansions B5 Neon Breeze