The Chemistry Set return with a strange tale where a cheap holiday souvenir turns into an ancient curse.

There is a specific lineage of British psychedelia that finds the cosmic in the mundane, where the tea is spiked, and the wallpaper patterns start to breathe. The Chemistry Set has been mining this vein since 1987, operating with the consistency of a subterranean laboratory. With a discography now numbering 54 releases and an uninterrupted run of sold-out pressings since 2008, Dave Mclean and Paul Lake remain the distinct auteurs of the Fruits de Mer roster.

On December 19th, the band returns to the dedicated ‘Regal Crabomophone’ imprint with a double A-side vinyl. We are premiering the track that perhaps best encapsulates their eccentric narrative power: ‘The Tragic Fridge Magnet’.

While the flip-side, ‘STP,’ dives into hallucinogenic perception, ‘The Tragic Fridge Magnet’ is a exercise in domestic horror. Songwriter Paul Lake extrapolates a personal obsession with holiday souvenirs into a “what-if” scenario of cursed artifacts. The track posits a grim question: what if that cheap “Hello from Cairo” magnet purchased in a souk is actually a stolen amulet from a Pharaonic tomb?

It is a track about the terrifying fall from grace, an object of ancient power reduced to holding up a shopping list, carrying a Lord Carnarvon-style curse into the suburbs. The sonic backdrop matches this narrative wit, blending melodic hooks with the unease of a cursed object.

The release features artwork by Robin Gnista (The Black Angels, Television) and is accompanied by a video from Drain Hope (Gong). The vinyl lands in December, with a digital expansion including an extended cut of ‘STP’ arriving on January 15, 2026.