Genre: psych
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: A Musical Light Show
Company: Smash
Catalog: MGS-27090
Year: 1967
Country/State: California
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: mono pressing; original inner sleeve
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4728
Price: $80.00
Cost: $66.00
Exploito psych is a niche market (geez, the fact I can type something like that is a pretty strong indicator that I need to get a real life). Like most things in life, the genre has its winners and losers. The good news is that this 1967 studio enterprise is one of the winners.
Hollywood-based producers Larry Goldberg and Hank Levine were the brainchildren behind this 1967 effort. Back by an anonymous collection of studio musicians, they wrote most of "A Musical Light Show" and were credited as the producers. Now let me warn you that even though the label lists ten tracks, this is really best described as an instrumental sound collage complete with a wide array of wacked sound effects. Tracks such as 'Birth of a Nation' and 'Dear Mom, Send Money' offer up a weird mix of conventional and psych sounds (ominous bass, fuzz guitar), those sound effects (phones, bullets, typewriters) and suitably entertaining song titles and liner notes ('We are a raindrop floating in a ditch besides the yellow brick road.') That says it all doesn't it ... This isn't something your going to spin all the time, but it is goofy enough to warrant an occasional trip to the turntable and after a couple of beers its fun to play 'spot the sound effect' with it.
"A Musical Light Show" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Birth of a Nation (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:49
2.) Rain of Terror (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:26
3.) Tempus Fugit (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:09
4.) Opus '71 (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:21
5.) Twenty First Century Express (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 3:21
(side
2)
1.) May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Flute (Larry
Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:10
2.) Requiem for Suzy Creamcheese (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:15
3.) The War for My Mind (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 1:54
4.) Dear Mom, Send Money (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine) - 2:08
5.) Exercise In Frustration (Larry Goldberg - Hank Levine)- 2:07