Strange Fish sampler

(Fruits de Mer)  Comprised of six LPs and a CD, Fruit de Mer’s new Strange Fish series showcases contemporary atmospheric, mostly-electronic prog artists, but prog in the Tangerine Dream/Neu/Goblin sense, not the guitar wankery American prog nuts revere. Not that this is all the same. Of the dozens of bands here there is plenty of variety (Sendelica’s ambient spaghetti western music is all about guitars; Golden Cake Company makes rich, beautiful, melodic noise, if noise and melody can coexist conceptually; Beau make ambitious psyche-ish pop). Certainly there is a point where one reaches one’s prog limit…probably listening to all 6 hours or so of this in a row would be a Tangerine Nightmare. But in moderation anyone can find their keyboard-driven bliss floating in this strange fish tank!