A Game For All Who Know

In the early '70s, there were numerous privately pressed albums that held true to the spirit of the psychedelic age, even though mainstream rock had moved on to harder and more progressive sounds. Ithaca's 1973 album, A Game for All Who Know, is one such rarity, combining folk-rock, psychedelia, and progressive rock in a much more unassuming, breezy fashion than most bands with real recording contracts managed to do. While the songs are a little lightweight in their naivete, they're pretty melodious and tastefully produced (verging on the under-produced, in fact). It helps a lot that they have a good mix of male and female vocals, with woman singer Lee Menelaus projecting a sweet, serene tone that doesn't lapse into either sappiness or ostentatiousness. With just six tracks (most of which tend toward the long side), it sounds almost equally influenced by the lighter shades of both West Coast and British psychedelia (the occasional Mellotron being the most British ingredient). The best song, "Questions," sounds like something that could have come off the Rubble series of late-'60s (largely U.K.) psychedelic obscurities, and though it was done too late to qualify for inclusion in that series, it would have been one of its better tracks if it had. ~ Richie Unterberger