Numero’s latest non-soul resurrection comes in the form of late-60s psych-pop group Pisces, who kicked around the Rockford, Illinois scene for a few years before bowing out without a whimper or even an album to their name. Adding to the romanticized back-story, the Pisces tapes which make up this compilation could still feasibly be rotting away in an Illinois basement somewhere if not for the luck of the Numero Group, who coincidentally ran across a handful of Pisces singles as they researched the band’s fledgling label, Vincent Records, presumably for an upcoming selection of highlights from the short-lived imprint.

As is the case with nearly anything Numero unearths, the music itself must stand up to modern scrutiny, as it can become too easy to elevate the status of these über-obscure acts, many of which could well be unknown for a reason. Thankfully, Pisces left behind a strong, trippy and frequently enchanting collection of psych-pop curiosities, and as always, Numero has painstakingly compiled these tracks into one revealing document, which here they’ve dubbed A Lovely Sight, after the studio run by Pisces co-leaders Jim Krein and Paul DeVenti.  

As I mentioned earlier, Pisces never got around to releasing an actual album, so what’s interesting about A Lovely Sight is that Numero has taken the liberty of sequencing a selection of 13 Pisces tracks into a kind-of revisionist full-length. They’ve done a considerable job in my view, as A Lovely Sight plays out as seamlessly as anyone could have hoped, with two distinct sides and even an Extended Play appendix, adding two additional tracks to this mock-album. And of course, the entire package is immaculate, with detailed liner notes and a handful of suitably psychedelic photos adding to the druggy nostalgia.

But back to the music, which is not only consistently strong, but also rendered in surprising clarity, as to accentuate every backwards guitar line and hand-manipulated tape experiment. The band’s occasional forays with these hallucinatory tape editing techniques remind me most directly of their contemporaries in The United States of America. But whereas USA utilized the kaleidoscopic aspects of these experiments to stretch out into lengthier head-trip excursions, Pisces use them in service of stand-alone pop songs. And these pop songs are, through and through, equally reminiscent of post-Rubber Soul Beatles, Nico-fronted Velvet Underground ballads, and Jefferson Airplane-style psych-rock rave-ups.

Early album highlight “Motley Mary Ann” on its own could pass for a Revolver outtake and in all seriousness could actually make a convincing argument for that same level of pop perfectionism. These Krein and DeVenti-led tracks are all charmingly left-of-center pop oddities, but it’s when they hand the reigns over to a mysterious female vocalist by the name of Linda Bruner that Pisces really begins to add a unique dimension to their proto-typical garage psych sound. Bruner recorded vocals for four Krein/DeVenti originals, and her earth-mother sighs add an ominous atmosphere to opener “Dear One,” while her more operatic flair comes to the fore on the thrilling combo of “Say Goodbye to John” and “Sam.”

Despite these considerable highlights, A Lovely Sight ends with arguably its two best tracks: “Elephant Eyes” is a steadily skipping garage-rock number of a fairly high order, and if Pisces weren’t so obscure I’d swear the Black Lips had lifted its woozy nonchalance for blatant use on their latest album; and closer “Circle of Time” brings things full circle, both thematically and lyrically, doubling back on “Dear One” and quite easily standing out as the most energetic and rocking of the tracks in this set (complete with a dizzying drum solo). It truly does sound like some sort of alternate reality hit, where Jefferson Airplane never took off and Vincent Records had the means to distribute the single outside the insulated Rockford community. 

A Lovely Sight is certainly one of the stronger Numero pop/rock releases thus far, and one that will no doubt satisfy those clamoring for more from this seemingly endless well of Nuggets-style psychedelic pop. And Pisces can now stand apart from their equally obscure brethren in that their legacy won’t have to amount to a single track as part of a gargantuan box set sans context, but rather as a fully told story, complete with 15 examples of their pop ingenuity. It really is a lovely sight, and one that the Numero Group has now made a whole lot easier to admire.

Last Word:

The Numero Group’s latest excavation of obscure pop wonderment, pieces together a proud legacy for ultra-obscure Illinois psych-pop band Pisces.

Review By:
Jordan Cronk, Music Editor

IN REVIEW ONLINE