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60s ephemera but evocative

John R. Hodgkinson | 09/23/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"(Not to be confused with the 90s Canadian rapper of the same name.)



This music is likely incomprehensible to anyone who didn't grow up in late 60s midwest US with a radio glued to their ear. Apparently however, somebody got reincarnated, because this little period piece has recently been reissued on CD by a UK label.



The good songs (The Golden Oldie Show, You Let Me Know) are OK but with an irritating sidelong glance toward the top 40, the bad songs (Englebert, Flying Balloon) are horrible but not horrible enough to be cult fodder. The middling songs will be fun to rediscover with player set on shuffle.



My favorite is the pair of tracks that end the album. The treakly Bab's Song segues into the embryonically heavy Caterpillar via an overloaded echoplex. The former track is typical string-infested "hey what's Left Banke got that we don't", but with slightly off kilter lyics about the thin line between love and pity. The latter track sounds like They Might Be Giants wrote one of their science fair songs, stumbled into a time machine, and made do with primitive studio equipment. The Moog that keeps drifting out of tune is priceless.



So, definitely an acquired taste, and probably one you could only have acquired in the 60s, but for that small subset of humanity worth the import surcharge."