Companion

To really get the most out of this collection, you need to be a fan of `60s psychedelic cult heroes the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band to begin with. It's not an anthology of tracks by the band, but a compendium of the members' other projects before, during, and after the WCPAEB's brief lifetime. The band's career was notoriously overseen by their shadowy Svengali/mentor/producer Bob Markley, a frustrated pop star desperate to insert himself into the `60s rock scene however possible, and the first third of the disc -- devoted to Markley's pre-WCPAEB projects as both producer and artist -- are of little more than historical interest, especially those with Markley as the featured vocalist. Fortunately, Companion is fully redeemed by what follows. The young musical masterminds who were the band's driving force -- Michael Lloyd and brothers Shaun and Danny Harris -- were involved with a head-spinning array of other projects from the mid-`60s to the early `70s, and their rare recordings have been unearthed here. Some of these tunes would also turn up in re-recorded versions on WCPAEB albums, or the members' later solo records. Their 1966-1967 singles as the Laughing Wind reveal an embryonic version of the psych-pop glory they'd soon achieve, but these cuts bear a more fresh-faced, folk-rock-laced, harmony-pop approach. Michael Lloyd's lone single under the Boystown moniker, recorded just after leaving the Harrises to contend with Markley's megalomaniac ways on their own, is an even more accomplished variation on an Association-like sound. Some early-`70s post-WCPAEB collaborations between Lloyd and the Harris brothers show that their pop gifts continued to blossom once they were free of Markley's influence. The collection closes unexpectedly, with the one-two sucker punch of "Rainbo," an avant-garde electronic piece, and "Leiyla & the Poet" by experimental composer Halim El-Dabh, which inspired the former. While Companion doesn't tell the complete story of the WCPAEB's extracurricular activities (from October Country to the Smoke and beyond, there's at least another volume out there) it provides some fascinating context for the band's slim official discography. ~ J. Allen