The Ventures - Endless Dream
Ever heavy-handed in their attempts at keeping pace with the constantly shifting musical tastes of the sixties, album-market workhorses The Ventures produced a characteristically obtuse slab of psychsploitation in late 1967 with Super Psychedelics. Which isn’t such a bad thing, really: John Davidson they were not, and working within their sphere of squareness (oh, the paradox…), they managed to record some fun and oddly enduring pieces over the years.
Some critics give The Ventures due for pioneering such cliches of rock as fuzz, backwards tape and concept albums, meanwhile neglecting to point out that, well, it was only the Ventures, so none of their innovations really count.
By the release of Super Psychedelics they were merely playing catch-up with the zeitgeist, but their dogged determination to convey psychedelia by utilizing any type of studio trickery then in vogue paid pop-trash dividends and lent their endeavor a light shade of authenticity. The covers (“Strawberry Fields,” “Happy Together,” etc.) were rote, but, as usual, they shined on the originals. “Endless Dream” plays the psych card to the hilt, transforming a fairly pedestrian surf lick into a scintillating funhouse of sitar-guitar, phasing, fuzz, and maracas. It may not have blown the minds of Syd Barrett devotees, but it survives as useful fodder for any DJ wishing to recreate a slightly-stoned sixties rave-up.
