1970 Orig FANTASY HARD FUZZED PSYCH JAMMER + FEM VOC

$

42

    CLEAN 1970 HIGH ENERGY FUZZ/PSYCH/ROCK ORIGINAL !   

                                                                FANTASY

\                                                USA - Liberty Records - LST 7643

Original 1970 first pressing vinyl in thick gatefold cover...this is the scarce (especially clean) 1970 Florida Hard Fuzz/Psych band led with a great tight powerful sound and great female vovals...Fantasy was a favorite ("Stoned Cowboy") among FM underground rock radio stations around 1970.

FANTASY served up a mix of hard hitting rock spiced with strong psychedelic leanings on their one and only full length production; with lead singer Lydia Janene Miller's powerful vocals adding extra dimensions to the psychedelic hard rock ventures of her bandmates. A lost gem of the 70's; well worth checking out by fans of the harder varieties of vintage psychedelic rock.

Fantasy was formed in 1967 in Miami and was comprised of 5 teenagers, Billy Robbins (Lead Vocals), Bob Robbins (Bass), Jim DeMeo (Guitar), Mario Russo (Keyboards), and Greg Kimple (Drums). Fantasy started out playing at teen dances and graduated to performing at The Experience, a Miami underground hippie hangout. From 1967 through 1970 the band, led by its charismatic young singer Billy Robbins, was developing a following. In 1968 The Experience closed its doors and morphed into Thee Image, a large converted bowling alley which featured the biggest artists of the day. Fantasy was chosen as the house band and every weekend they found themselves on the bill with the likes of Cream, Grateful Dead, The Doors, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Frank Zappa and Led Zeppelin to name a few. The bands regional popularity was soaring when tragedy struck. In the Summer of 1970, Fantasy’s lead singer Billy Robbins disappeared. Dates were postponed and then thirty days later, their worst fears were realized when Billy Robbins was found dead. Several months later the band began its search for a new singer, settling on a 16 year old female vocalist Janene Miller. Where Billy Robbins was all charisma, Janene was all talent. She got on board and the Fantasy train kept a rollin’. It was only a matter of months before the band signed a manager and hooked up with the Liberty/United Artists record label This album, is the first and only true Fantasy album. It is a pure and honest testimonial to its time.  Pay attention to the instrumental arrangements of the songs. They are very, very intrincate, with many changes of rhythm, style, tempo, etc. The keyboards and the guitar, coupled with heavy distortion, phasing, feedback, echo, provide a mixture of sounds that is hard to achieve, and the drummer has a hard time to follow the tempo and rhythm changes, but he does it perfectly. You will get stunned if you try to follow how many times they switch from blues to rock and to jazz and back to rock again.

In the first song, Happy, they play with classical music, include short operatic passages, mixed with hard psychedelic rock, while in Come, they go jazzy in an extended instrumental section, with an acid guitar solo over the complex piano and drums, but they blend well. Wages of Sin is harder and somber, with many changes in tempo. Then, Circus of Invisible Man starts emulating circus music, but with a weird tempo that make the intro sounds broken. When the song picks up, it is a slow and somber psychedelic song, with superb organ and so many changes that your mind get lost while listening to it, but when you regain control of it you realize that you passed through a superb musical experience. Stoned Cowboy was their hit song at the time, but, of course, in a shorter version. The intro is very upbeat, with a very dirty guitar solo over a catchy organ melody. The song picks up the pace toward the end, with good organ and guitar solos, but it is still conventional compared to the other numbers. Understand shows the teenager Jenene Miller singing like Janis Joplin, and brings back all those changes in rhythm and tempo. The highlight is the guitar in this song.

But the real gem of the album is the lengthy What's Next. The intro is dark, with a somber piano riff and a good acid guitar solo. The rhythm and tempo changes are all around. Besides the great guitar and organ interplay, drumming is superb, with many variations. There is a upbeat excerpt in the middle of the song that is a total contrast with the dense mood of the song.

Overall is a surprisingly good album, with so creative instrumental arrangements that it will make hardrock/psychrock fan very pleased. Unfortunately the band never achieved the deserved success and disbanded very soon after this album.

1.Happy
2.Come
3.Wages Of Sin
4.Circus Of Invisible Men
5.Stoned Cowboy
6.Understand
7.What's Next

CONDITION: The Cover: The thick gatefold cover is solid. Usually found with a lot of ring wear due to the dark cover, this one is VG+ only a little light shelf wear and having no seam splits, no bends, no writing ...collectible keeper especially with the strong vinyl:

The Vinyl: all shiny smooth over both sides, about "EX" (excellent) only a nothing scuff, the whole album plays minty clean = outstanding! The Liberty labels are both clean

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record