Phantasia - s/t. 1972 USA

Kansas City's Phantasia is truly one of America's great oddball albums. Privately released to an audience of zero, it would take many years for anyone to even hear the album much less reissue it (by a German label no less). Other than the overtly psychedelic rock opening Transparent Face and closing Give Life Another Try, one could be forgiven for describing Phantasia as a long extended version of King Crimson's 'I Talk to the Wind'. Basically atmospheric and acoustically driven psychedelic folk, with hazy vocals and melancholic verses. One track is called 'I Talk to the Moon', so there you have it. If that's all there was, I would still give it a high mark as it's well executed, but then there's that one payoff track that takes it to the next level. The 9+ minute Genena sounds like Simon & Garfunkel meets Avalanche's 'Oblivion'.

I can already anticipate the question most of you will have.

Who is Simon & Garfunkel?

Personal collection
CD: 2002 World in Sound (Germany)

The one original I could find online is the first photo. A mere $4K scored that one. Seems almost a bargain by contrast to others of its ilk. For the rest of us, the World in Sound reissues not only allow you to own the album, but greatly enhance the experience. There are very detailed liner notes, a much more attractive cover, very good sound, and the vinyl editions come in a gatefold. All the reissues include as bonus tracks the one sided EP (Walkenhorst-De Pugh. 1972 Damon). The vinyl renditions have this as an additional 10 inch record. The CD is sold out here in the States, but I did secure a new copy from Germany recently, so it appears a small amount of stock remains. There are a few dates usually attributed to this album, but because of those detailed liner notes, 1972 appears to be the correct date.