The rating of this album is a bit of a problem -- on one level, it isn't any better than one would expect from a studio pick-up band doing raga-style covers of "I Am The Walrus," "&Black Is Black," "Eleanor Rigby," "&Blue Jay Way," etc. It isn't what one would can call a terribly adventurous recording, and it's exactly the opposite of the recordings -- George Harrison's "Love You To" and "Within You, Without You" -- whose textures it seems to want to emulate. On the other, it does have its odd moments of beauty, such as the heavy sitar noodling on "Eleanor Rigby" and "I Am The Walrus," and the sitar subbing for the lead vocal line on
Pete Townshend's "I Can See For Miles" is worth hearing once, at least. "Blue Jay Way" is so strange --
the Beatles' original being a raga-style number with no sitar -- that it is also worth a listen. Additionally, the album was cut with a special emphasis on the stereo separation and a very bright sound, that makes it a peculiar extension of the late '50s "bachelor's den" audiophile school of recording. And one track here, "Black Is Black," does rock out in no uncertain terms, and the sitar does a good job there of extending the song into some new territory, sub-continent Top 40 rock. The album was reissued late in 1999 on EMI's revived Zonophone label, an appropriate place for the label's in-house psychedelic vision, limited as it was. ~ Bruce Eder