Contrary to popular belief, Idaho is not strictly a vast wasteland of libertarian crankiness, or, to be more precise, it may be that on the whole, but it has also had its share of hippie nonconformists, some of them wielding electric musical instruments. With this archival find, has unearthed the work of one of the more worthwhile shaggy-haired Idaho bands of the era. The CD pulls together two separate 1970 sessions recorded by and here given their first public airing. The music is quite strong, often propelled by 's overdriven Hammond organ work, a sound that might be thought of as the missing link between the aggressiveness of the and the gloomy complexity of -- think crossed with . There are a few other hints of influences throughout , particularly in the minor-key chord changes, the epic, episodic song structures of pieces like and and a single lyrical nod to literary fantasy ( ). That said, this isn't really artsy stuff, doesn't take itself too seriously, and even intersperses the heady instrumental passages at which the band excelled with occasional satirical nods to ( ) and the ). isn't really , either, in the generally accepted sense of the term, though it's easy to see how dealers could mislabel elements of the band's music in that way, especially some of those instrumental explorations. 's intriguing guitar work sometimes approaches the sustained tone of 's , and ' drumming is effectively elemental (listen to the raw, relentless, almost tribal stretches of ). But this is, by and large, -based , albeit considerably more sophisticated ( is adept ), inquisitive, and penetrating than the norm. These guys were perhaps only a few hooks and a decent singer -- and a state line or two -- removed from genuine success. ~ Stanton Swihart