Psychedelic States: New York in the '60s, Vol. 1

It is generally not a difficult task to pick out '60s New York and . The music tends to have a number of identifying characteristics that render it readily identifiable, usually only a few bars into any given song. Such characteristics include the pugnacious, streetwise vocals, dense fuzz guitar with a certain ruggedness that predicted a couple years ahead of the curve, a massively lumbering bottom end with a repetitive thump, a significant strain of , and -- most particularly -- an immediately distinguishable organ sound unique from other organ-heavy regions like Seattle and Boston. All of those attributes, if they can be called such, are in abundance on 's first compilation, which chronicles New York's scene. Alongside them you can find the typical teenage romantic angst, snarling insolence, guitar rave-ups, and the imitations included in all such collections. The winners here include from (band of the teenaged ), the brilliantly dismissive, downright vulgar (a combo well known to most aficionados), ' 's tough by (the only true bit of acid dementia present here). If you like the other albums in this series, this one will not disappoint. ~ Stanton Swihart