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Various Artists - Acid Dreams Testament (1969)

Track listing:
  1. Question Of Temperature Ballon Farm 2:40
  2. You Love Me Again Music Machine 1:53
  3. Anxious Color Painted Faces 2:33
  4. Velvet Illusions Velvet Illusions 2:08
  5. Cry, Cry, Cry Unrelated Segments 3:08
  6. Set Me Free Outcasts 2:55
  7. Born Loser Murphy And The Mob 2:29
  8. No Friend Of Mine Sparkles 2:26
  9. Frustration Painted Ship 2:58
  10. Maid Of Sugar Mouse And The Traps 2:39
  11. Be Forwarned Macabre 3:27
  12. I'm A Living Sickness Calico Wall 2:43
  13. Acid Head Velvet Illusions 3:10
  14. William White Light 2:03
  15. 1523 Blair Outcasts 1:49
  16. I Need You Zakary Thaks 2:29
  17. Little White Lies Painted Ship 2:39
  18. Loui Loui Swamp Rats 3:21
  19. It's Unfair Unrelated Segments 2:41
  20. Black Lightning Light Shy Guys 4:36
  21. Dark Corner Bourbons 2:32
  22. Help I'm Lost Mind's Eye 2:21
  23. On The Road South Stereo Shoestrings 2:16
  24. Can You Hear Zakark Thaks 2:32
  25. Cuttin' Grass Caretakers Of Deception 2:34
  26. Painted Air Remaining Few 3:40
  27. Suzy Creamcheese Teddy And His Patches 3:12
  28. Hashish Indian Puddin And Pipe 3:03

Notes

For the most part, this is a first-rate collection of 28 mid- to late-'60s garage rock/psychedelic nuggets. Only one (the Balloon Farm's "A Question of Temperature") was an actual hit, but much of the rest of the disc is only just below the level of the classic status that might have nudged the material onto the Nuggets box set. The Painted Ship's unusual moody and spellbinding "Frustration" is an all-time classic of the genre, and a good number of these tracks are almost as good: Zakary Thaks' "Can't You Hear Your Daddy's Footsteps?," Teddy & His Patches' psychedelic novelty "Suzy Creamcheese," Mouse & the Traps' pounding "Maid of Sugar," the Calico Wall's queasy "I'm a Living Sickness," Velvet Illusions' "Acid Head," the Music Machine's "You'll Love Me Again," and the Outcasts' smoking "1523 Blair," for starters. Some of the songs are just OK, but little is dull. So why the "for the most part" qualification at the head of this review? Well, quite a bit of this -- including all the aforementioned goodies -- circulated for quite a while on commonly available reissues for many years prior to this release. There's little here of note that has been hard to find, the one notable exception being Macabre's "Be Forewarned," an unexpectedly great and demonic slice of terror that's probably eluded other garage/psych comps owing to its 1972 release date, though stylistically it sounds like something that could have been cooked up four years or so earlier. Of weirder and greater note, no less than 13 of the tracks also appear on the 18-song garage/psych comp titled Acid Dreams -- which, weirder yet, was released by the same label, in the same year, as Acid Dreams Testament. So to enjoy the CD without qualms, you really have to be a neophyte collector who's not too worried about overlapping cuts should you want to acquire a good deal of stuff in this style. If none of these curmudgeonly old-school "been there done that" pokes bother you, though, it's a good place to pick up some quality extra-Nuggets