In 1967 my musical world shifted and changed when Neon Pearl with their hazy riffs, mildly hypnotic vocals, and layered sonic meanderings made up of gentle guitar distortions, and ever expanding floating harmonies filtered from across the ocean from my speakers, morphing like clouds caught by the setting sun, holding and reshaping the light … first on late night disembodied FM radio, until a cassette copy finally found its way into my arms, where for all these years it has remained as one of my true musical passions.With lysergic being legal in the mid 60’s, this was the album I always played as I felt the mystery coursing though my body, watching the wood grain of my stereo begin to flow like water as my breathing became more shallow, as I could feel my eyes begin to dilate, and there was not a right angle to be found anywhere within the room. During those tripped out nights Neon Pearl carried me forward, nearly as whispers, into my own personal blanketed sonic oblivion of wonder and delight.This was British psychedelia at its very best, and while there were certainly pleasing dreamy psych albums out there, there was nothing that ventured even close to this bit of intoxication, leading me on a lifelong journey to find more of these manifestations of melodic longing … and to that end I have compiled hundreds of songs plucked from other bands that rode on a similar current for a track or two, though nothing this consistent. It would not be until the revival of this sort of psychedelic music that my knees would turn to jelly, my shoes filled with sand, unable to move, locked in place, and all by choice, because this ebbing slowly flowering music is simply breathtakingly beautiful.The music of Neon Pearl is not about complication or extraordinary guitar playing … Neon Pearl is about the steady redemption of warm fog, ethereal jangling guitars, dream laden lyrics and the altered state of consciousness it’s able to bring on though an elegant deep and pervasive sedative drone.There are those who will attempt to infer that these tracks come across as incomplete and monotonous … yet in them I find fully realized concepts that go far beyond mere notes, where these songs ride as one of the soundtracks to my life. And even today, with so much music traveling down this avenue, it’s to Neon Pearl that I return time and time again, with each track inching a memorable smile across my face.Of course I could have simply said:This album is about a comfortable overstuffed leather chair …Warm slippers …Thick Oriental carpets …Open windows …Summer nights …Fresh cut lawns …Midnight swims …And the passion of chemically sharing yourself with another soul on a similar journey …The Backstory: Neon Pearl hailed from the UK and spent most of their active short career in Germany, with no one willing to back them, yet alone give them the record contract they so rightly deserved. After returning to England a producer financed them to lay down as many tracks as they could within the studio time that was booked. And that brings us to this CD and the mono vinyl, created from the original master tapes that languished for years, with random cassette copies being traded. Thankfully you can now hold this bit of wanderlust in your hands, spin it on your player, and get lost in a bit of the magic that has been coursing though my body for nearly fifty years.Review by Jenell Kesler