Strange Strange Fruit

The seminal 4AD outfit Cocteau Twins were always a band that had few peers. The guitar wizardry of Robin Guthrie played like some New Age Kevin Shields. And Elizabeth Frasier simply created a new language instead of settling with the old ways. It was all quite lovely, a little trippy and completely their own. The band has a slew of rare and unreleased tracks available for download on the media page of their site. Included are demo tracks of "In Our Angelhood", "Pearly-Dewdrops Drop" and "Perhaps Some Other Aeon" (the b-side track to "Speak No Evil", the first Cocteau Twins single) as well as alternate versions of "Ivo" and "Pink Orange Red". There's also two tracks the Cocteaus recorded in the mid-90s for use in Frutopia commercials (yep, that's right Frutopia) one of which was later remixed by DJ Spooky for his 'Found Sound' release. Perhaps the strangest fare in the lot though is the John Peel administered version of the 1939 Lewis Allan classic made famous by Billy Holiday and Josephine Baker, "Strange Fruit".