Peak Impressions [Import]

Back in 67' you had groups that were the genuine article or just trying to imitate what was going on in pop music culture and even in some areas of the US, it didn't catch on until 2-3 years later, but this is not the case here! A truly unique album from The Freeborne, Peak Impressions is perhaps one of the best psych LP's to come out of the "Bosstown Sound" in Massachusetts. Originally released on Monitor in 1967, this should be known as one of the better releases from that area. These groups got panned by critics and were labeled as San Francisco ripoffs, being that San Fran was the pop music mecca then. All things aside, this stands on it's own as one of the finest offerings, up there with Phluph, Listening & Tangerine Zoo, although not exactly from Boston. Anyone who writes these groups off & still stereotypes them just for the sake of doing so, is probably an ex-hippy, now yuppy businessman that "knows everything". Anyway, this rare album which is difficult to find in original form, contains a psychedelic mix of rock, jazz, some blues & other free-form musical whims which gives a pleasing listening experience. Not a bad track to be found, "Land of Diana", "Yellow Sky", "Peak Impressions" & "Images" drip of acid and are well written and arranged. Nice Farfisa & fuzz guitar. "Inside People" is a great little tune with the vocals fed through a leslie speaker. This song is what Buffalo Springfield would sound like if they were more tripped out. Definitely a Top 20 psych album of all time, if not Top 20 of 1967. This copy on Smithsonian Folkways, although pressed on a CD-R, still has excellent sound quality and I cannot imagine it sounding any better, unless re-master guru Bob Irwin took on the project himself. If it sounds dated, good! This music is like a fine 1st growth French Bordeaux. It gets better with age! Enjoy.

The Freeborne come as a pleasant surprise to the psych fan who thought he already had everything worth having from the era. Elsewhere, I've read some disparaging remarks about the Freeborne's musical abilities, which drove me to write this review. Far from being musically deficient, these guys are a big step up from the typical psych band of the era. Musically far more talented, their arrangements are also far more elaborate and well thought out, as can be verified by anyone who owns the Heavy Dose of Lite Psych compilation, and compares their song 'Land of Diana' with the rest on that compilation. My only criticism is aimed not at the band but at this CDR format. I recently ripped my entire CD collection to my PC, and from well over a thousand CDs, this was the only CD to give a message of 'blank CD - not rippable', or something to that effect. My laptop (ASUS with Windows 7) could not read this disc, it couldn't even distinguish it from a blank. I had to use some data-reading software that was able to load the songs, and then manually type in the names, etc. But that's no criticism of the band, just the foresight of the (I'm sure well-meaning) Smithsonian Institute. On the other hand, it's good to know that such respectable institutions now see quality 60s psych as being on a par with other music from western history which institutes like the Smithsonian collect, e.g. folk and blues. I should add that the CD plays fine on the stereo though, it's only a problem on the PC, and the sound quality is excellent.