Psychedelic Moods

From an historical perspective, Psychedelic Moods stands as a landmark in rock history as it was the first ever album to incorporate the word psychedelic in its title, beating out both The Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and the The Blues Magoos' Psychedelic Lollipop by one month. However, unlike those two bands, both of whom frequently appear on 1960s garage/psych compilations, one would be hard-pressed to find a comp compiling any work by The Deep. This is odd given that a song like 'Trip #76', a stone-cold classic, would fit nicely alongside 'You're Gonna Miss Me' and 'We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet'. Perhaps this is attributable to some kind of contractual nonsense given label Cameo Parkway's difficult reputation. In fact, upon its release in 1966, Psychedelic Moods was not properly marketed, lost in the shuffle due in large part to Cameo Parkway ignoring it and instead choosing to market ? and The Mysterians on the strength of '96 Tears' which coincided with the release of Psychedelic Moods. Nonetheless, forty odd years later, this album by The Deep has achieved mythical status among garage/psych aficionados and collectors, and is rightly considered an underground classic.While the Beatles were the most visible band to begin incorporating psychedelic elements into their music on Revolver, there were other lesser-known groups doing the same thing at roughly the same time. One of these was New York City's The Deep. Comprised of former folkies Rusty Evans and Mark Barkan, The Deep was conceived as an artistic outlet to document the duo's LSD experiences. Designed to replicate the various stages of an acid trip, Psychedelic Moods offers a freaked-out sonic world with songs enveloped in all manner of studio effects including bells, whistles, reverb, and the obligatory fuzz guitar. At times sounding like the more dreamily, narcotic parts of The Velvet Underground and Nico, songs such as 'When Rain is Black' and 'Shadows on the Wall' lend to the gently unsettled nature of the record, like returning home and opening the door expecting familiar surroundings only to discover the furniture rearranged. Elsewhere, 'Your Choice to Choose' and 'Turned On' offer a rough and tumble grittiness, foreshadowing the proto-punk of the Stooges.The Deep are truly one of the 1960s great lost bands. With Psychedelic Moods they beat everyone to the punch, including the Velvets, Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and the Stooges. The Definitive Masters Edition of Psychedelic Moods offers crisp sound and alternate studio versions of select tracks along with comprehensive liner notes. It is superior to the versions released by Fallout and Radioactive Records. If you have any interest in psychedelic music, this is essential.

Famous only for being one of the first albums to use the word "psychedelic" on it's cover, it is not very psychedelic and the lyrics remind me of the bad poetry of a bad beatnik movie. This album is not terrible, but it is instantly forgettable.

Absolutely awful. And I own every reissue of 60s psych in print. There is a reason this album is so obscure. Terrible songs, awful vocalist - I hardly ever leave reviews with one star, but this deserves it.

good cd if you like old 60's acid rock.

There's something interesting about nearly every song on this low-budget effort from the Deep. I don't listen to much garage and normally prefer albums recorded a couple years later in the post-Pepper period, but this one is an exception, a collection of garage songs with unusual sound effects, psych rock plus a few haunting acoustic tracks. Not everyone will like it, and on close examination a critic could probably tear it apart, but when one considers the young age of those involved, the relatively primitive technology and the low budget, it's surprising they produced something this good, an album still gaining more fans 46 years after originally being recorded.

this is my number 1 psychalbum of all times. No discussion about this masterwork. It will always be in my top ten list. Although I am listening nowadays to Radiohead, Magnetic Fields and Devendra Bandhart this will stay.