The Deep - Psychedelic Moods: A Mind Expanding Phenomena CD (Radioactive)

This was one of the first self-referentially psychedelic releases (Cameo-Parkway, 1966), and you can hear the band trying to figure out exactly where garage rock stops and portentous lunacy begins. The results sometimes sound like the Seeds on bad rye bread, elsewhere like Jack Jones down the rabbit hole, but rarely like people who have actually had their minds expanded. (Maybe stretched a little.) While promo man Neil Bogart stamped “not recommended for children” all over the album jacket, it's doubtful anyone was scared by the Deep. Still, that's some nice phasing on “Your Choice to Choose,” and “On Off - Off On” is an interesting old timey bubblegum antecedent--perhaps not coincidentally, since Mark “Banana Splits” Barkan was one of the stretchy minds behind this disc. -Kim Cooper