This record (and its predecessor) is somehow inevitable, though wonderful. I've long speculated in these pages on just how much prime 60's cut there is still actually out there, and in terms of sheer barrel scraping honesty this CD comp scores highly. Some history: In 1997, the Distortions label released a CD entitled Unknown Mystery 60's Group. The songs on the CD were found on a reel-to-reel tape from a flea market in Philadelphia. At the time of the release, nothing was known about the band. Excited by this, Octopus managed to track the band down via the classifieds of various Philly newspapers. The drummer (currently living in Spain) eventually supplied them with missing details, photographs and tapes for a further volume, but under the condition that the band should remain completely anonymous. So, Volume II by Unknown Mystery 60¹s Group even has some stylistic 70's turns to it, and although dates are not listed we can assume that the material is a little later than the first volume. It¹s REALLY good stuff though, you get snippets of Arthur Lee in the vocals, Beatle strums and tambourine, Buffalo Springfield sounds, the anglophilia of Big Star or the better Box Tops records. Why You Gotta Be That Way is thematically Lou Reed¹s Vicious but with a Charlatans (original) lilt and a great sense of humor. Timothy has riffs which will make the E6ers kill each other in the fight to cover it first, GREAT lyrics, poppy Dylan with drug references and a surreal bent. Dark Side of the Sun is classic psych a la The Youngbloods or The Leaves, not a second rate version or a carbon copy, but a composition which ought to have been sitting with those artists in record shop racks at the time. Harmonies intact, song polished, recording and production very good. It certainly beats some of the rag-bag compilations I've heard trawling the vaults of relatively well known artists. Often, when far into obscure territory I have to return to a canonized favorite to remind myself where and why the benchmarks exist, by listening to The Count Five or The Electric Prunes. (John Peel categorized it perfectly as not being able to add or subtract anything from the piece). I was glad to find here that this totally anonymous archive material stood the test in the large majority of places. The only negative here is the information void it exists in: I really wish I could tell you all a bit more about the damn band!Steve HansonPtolemic TerrascopePLEASE VISITwww.birdhouserecords.comFOR MORE INFORMATION