There's not much to compare this album to, even in the weird musical climate of 1968 -- there are echoes of
Country Joe & The Fish
and
the Doors
, perhaps, in the mysterioso organ and morbid imagery. Not that
Ken Erwin
was in the same league as
Jim Morrison
, or even
Country Joe
, as a songwriter. But (with the exception of the brassy good-time cut
"Underground Music"
), psychedelia was very rarely this dementedly gloomy. Occasional pealing bells and curdling screams (to say nothing of the
Boschlike
cover art) add to the foggy underworld menace. Reissued without authorization in Europe in the 1980s, the 1995 domestic CD is a first-class job: the 12 bonus cuts gather some rare non-LP singles, alternate takes, and previously unreleased songs, and the liner notes feature extensive interviews with
and engineer
Steve Longman
. ~ Richie Unterberger