The Beautiful Daze – “City Jungle Part 1″/ “City Jungle Part 2” (RPR Records R-101) 1967

Hold onto your crystalized mind until the eggman collects it for The Beautiful Daze are about to take you on a lysergic trip. This is a certainty with their ’beautiful production’ to the City jungle wherever that is. My guess is that it’s Los Angeles circa 1967, as this amazing acid fuelled 45 was recorded in Hollywood.

I first discovered ’City Jungle Part 1’ way back in the 80s on a garage psych comp called ’Acid Dreams’ and it completely blew my mind. Who were these guys? How did they get that sound? What planet did they come from? I had all of these questions back then but had no answers.

Fast forward almost 30 years and I still have no answers. ’City Jungle Parts 1 & 2’ is psychedelic mayhem or sonic dementia depending on your state of mind at the time of listening.

Joyful psych noises

It sounds like The Beautiful Daze incorporate twin acid leads and joyful psych noises that is probably an echoplex. There’s mind altering feedback and maximum fuzz action. They even have time for a mid song Association type sunshine pop interlude. But that peace quickly fades away as more fuzztone guitars burn away the sunshine.

It seems that the single was a Los Angeles underground hit as I’ve seen numerous copies on RPR Records for sale over the years. It was also released on Spread City Records and Alpha Records.