Golden State psychedelia

"San Francisco's Golden State Recorders studios charted the rise of mid-60s Bay Area music. Leo De Gar Kulka caught early material from The Beau Brummels, Sly & The Family Stone and The Grateful Dead on tape and was behind albums for The Love Exchange, The Sons Of Champlin, Mad River and Brewer & Shipley. The material featured on Golden State Psychedelia is unreleased, bar two singles from The Tow-Away Zone and The Seventh State. You wouldn't think so though as this one of Big Beat's strongest "unreleased" comps in some time. The influence of local big hitters the Airplane is writ large, with big voiced girls and mellow males alongside wigged-out guitar solos and quirky time changes galore. There are also feral beasts tucked in among them, like Fuck For Peace by Magician. Splendid!".

"... usually the music seesaws between open-hearted flower power and profane protest, the latter highlighted by Magician's possible protest "Fuck for Peace." If the vulgar moments pack a punch that obscures the sunbleached folk-rock -- the harmonized paeans for peace wither in the face of cloistered rhythms and fuzz guitars -- it's the blend of these two hippie extremes that make this compilation a vivid time capsule".

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