Inside the Hutt: New Zealand's Pop Psych Kingpins

i was going to go with 4 stars here but even though these recordings are creeping up on 50 years old they where very well done, this nz pop act back in the late 60s sadly missed the boat as these singles where recorded between 1968 and 69 , that whole mersybeat sound was already a few years gone by the time these recordings saw the light of day, i mean by 1967 bands like spooky tooth and blue cheer where already starting to put out records and you have heavy hitters like black sabbath, coven and zeppelin as well as deep purple and uriah heep sitting on the side lines, i think this band could have gone a lot further if these recordings came out a few years earlier say 1965 or so as this has a very 1963 to 65 mersybeat sound, as for the songs themselves they where very well written and very well produced so that is why i give this release 5 stars as a lot of hard work and effort was put into these recording but this is simple and a no brainer if you liked the beatles, the hollies and all the other uk pop bands coming up during mersybeat between 1962 to 1966 then you may love this collection as these guys certainly where going for a beatles circa 1963/to 1965 sound, sadly by the time these recordings first saw the light of day in 1969 the whole psyche scene was a few years in swing and the hard /acid rock scene was exploding so by 1969 this was kind of out dated, regardless the songs are very good , they dont do that much for me as they just do not catch me but to give a very fair review these are very great songs if you liked the merseybeat/liverpool sound by way of new zealand!!!! great booklet and liner notes as well as awesome remastering to make these tracks sound there best are all here......

The Fourmyula have something to offer for fans of very English-sounding psych pop of the likes of say Kippington Lodge, Mirage, Turquoise or Skip Bifferty. Except for one or 2 tracks with phasing or other period effects, these are not overly 'psychedelic' but focus more on melody and arrangement to catch the listener's ear. Although they don't appear on the NZ psych compilation 'Number 8 Wire - 16 Trippy New Zealand Nuggets 1967-69', if you like the various psychedelic efforts found there, you'll probably find a lot to enjoy here too.