Pisces - A Lovely Sight (Late 60's US Psychedelia)

Though it's primarily known for its "eccentric soul" reissues, the founders of Chicago's Numero Group label also have a deep and abiding love for the wildly inventive and genre-blurring qualities of vintage psychedelic rock, and with their latest release, they've unearthed as brilliant a buried treasure as I've ever heard from the fertile period that followed "Sgt. Pepper's" and the much-vaunted Summer of Love.

Hardly a hippie haven, the psychedelic trip as interpreted in Rockford, Ill., circa 1969 was darker, grittier and on occasion more sinister and threatening than anything heard in sunny San Francisco--not for nothing does Numero describe the group of studio musicians who called themselves Pisces as aiming for "the Beatles and Jefferson Airplane, but somehow sounding more like the Velvet Underground's meth'd out Midwest cousin." As with the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, that hint of menace makes the group's journey toward the white light all the more powerful.

Previously heard only on three ultra-rare 45's issued back in the day--the group's one album remained unreleased until this collection--Pisces' other big asset is the warm, robust Earth Mother voice of sometimes vocalist Linda Bruner, who shines on tracks such as the enchanting "Dear One," the lovely "Say Goodbye to John" and the haunting "Sam." The band was not immune to the indulgences of the times--a song like "Mary" sinks under the weight of all that phasing and studio trickery, while the somber spoken-word bit in "Genesis II" would have been better left to the Moody Blues. But overall, the enduring melodies and unique ambience of "A Lovely Sight" sound as vibrant and relevant today as they did four decades ago.

The Numero Group may be more popularly defined by their various soul and funk compilations, such as the ongoing Eccentric Soul series, but for me, the most rewarding releases from the label have more often come via the excavation of decades-old fringe acts almost too obscure to even be considered undiscovered. Previous entries in the catalogue have spotlighted such musical footnotes as Antena, Catherine Howe, the original Yellow Pills compilation, Kansas Cityís Titan pop label, and most illuminating for me, the Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies from the Canyon collection, which rescued over a dozen female folk singers from the early 70s post-hippie wash-out.

Numeroís latest non-soul resurrection comes in the form of late-60s psych-pop group Pisces, who kicked around the Rockford, Illinois scene for a few years before bowing out without a whimper or even an album to their name. Adding to the romanticized back-story, the Pisces tapes which make up this compilation could still feasibly be rotting away in an Illinois basement somewhere if not for the luck of the Numero Group, who coincidentally ran across a handful of Pisces singles as they researched the bandís fledgling label, Vincent Records, presumably for an upcoming selection of highlights from the short-lived imprint.

As is the case with nearly anything Numero unearths, the music itself must stand up to modern scrutiny, as it can become too easy to elevate the status of these ¸ber-obscure acts, many of which could well be unknown for a reason. Thankfully, Pisces left behind a strong, trippy and frequently enchanting collection of psych-pop curiosities, and as always, Numero has painstakingly compiled these tracks into one revealing document, which here theyíve dubbed A Lovely Sight, after the studio run by Pisces co-leaders Jim Krein and Paul DeVenti.

As I mentioned earlier, Pisces never got around to releasing an actual album, so whatís interesting about A Lovely Sight is that Numero has taken the liberty of sequencing a selection of 13 Pisces tracks into a kind-of revisionist full-length. Theyíve done a considerable job in my view, as A Lovely Sight plays out as seamlessly as anyone could have hoped, with two distinct sides and even an Extended Play appendix, adding two additional tracks to this mock-album. And of course, the entire package is immaculate, with detailed liner notes and a handful of suitably psychedelic photos adding to the druggy nostalgia.

But back to the music, which is not only consistently strong, but also rendered in surprising clarity, as to accentuate every backwards guitar line and hand-manipulated tape experiment. The bandís occasional forays with these hallucinatory tape editing techniques remind me most directly of their contemporaries in The United States of America. But whereas USA utilized the kaleidoscopic aspects of these experiments to stretch out into lengthier head-trip excursions, Pisces use them in service of stand-alone pop songs. And these pop songs are, through and through, equally reminiscent of post-Rubber Soul Beatles, Nico-fronted Velvet Underground ballads, and Jefferson Airplane-style psych-rock rave-ups.

Early album highlight ìMotley Mary Annî on its own could pass for a Revolver outtake and in all seriousness could actually make a convincing argument for that same level of pop perfectionism. These Krein and DeVenti-led tracks are all charmingly left-of-center pop oddities, but itís when they hand the reigns over to a mysterious female vocalist by the name of Linda Bruner that Pisces really begins to add a unique dimension to their proto-typical garage psych sound. Bruner recorded vocals for four Krein/DeVenti originals, and her earth-mother sighs add an ominous atmosphere to opener ìDear One,î while her more operatic flair comes to the fore on the thrilling combo of ìSay Goodbye to Johnî and ìSam.î

Despite these considerable highlights, A Lovely Sight ends with arguably its two best tracks: ìElephant Eyesî is a steadily skipping garage-rock number of a fairly high order, and if Pisces werenít so obscure Iíd swear the Black Lips had lifted its woozy nonchalance for blatant use on their latest album; and closer ìCircle of Timeî brings things full circle, both thematically and lyrically, doubling back on ìDear Oneî and quite easily standing out as the most energetic and rocking of the tracks in this set (complete with a dizzying drum solo). It truly does sound like some sort of alternate reality hit, where Jefferson Airplane never took off and Vincent Records had the means to distribute the single outside the insulated Rockford community.

A Lovely Sight is certainly one of the stronger Numero pop/rock releases thus far, and one that will no doubt satisfy those clamoring for more from this seemingly endless well of Nuggets-style psychedelic pop. And Pisces can now stand apart from their equally obscure brethren in that their legacy wonít have to amount to a single track as part of a gargantuan box set sans context, but rather as a fully told story, complete with 15 examples of their pop ingenuity. It really is a lovely sight, and one that the Numero Group has now made a whole lot easier to admire.

01. Dear One
02. Children Kiss Your Mother Goodnight
03. Motley Mary Ann
04. Say Goodbye To John
05. Mary
06. Genesis II
07. Sam
08. Music Box
09. Like a Hole In The Wall Where The Rat Lives
10. Are You Changing In Your Time
11. In the Dreams Of Paula
12. Elephant Eyes
13. Circle Of Time
14. Flower For All Seasons
15. In The Summer The Grape Grows

Post by CGR