Kak’s only release is a solid West Coast album with strong Moby Grape and garage rock influences. I am not totally sold on the Kak album but I feel it’s at least very good, not really a classic work by any means, although some people swear by it.

Group members included Dehner C. Patton on lead guitar, Gary L Yoder rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Joseph D Damrell bass guitar, sitar, and tambourine, and Christopher A. Lockheed drums, tabla, and harpsichord. Kak resided in San Fransisco and while their existence proved to be brief, the Yoder/Patton guitar combo was pretty potent – they could rock out relentlessly but also hit you with a certain charm. Yoder was notable for playing in the legendary garage psych band the Oxford Circle, who released the awesome Foolish Woman single in1966 and were a feared live band.

The Kak album begins with three outstanding, garage-like San Fransisco ravers that bear out Yoder’s roots. Everything Changes is a personal favorite with a classic hard charging San Fran acid rock vibe very similar to Moby Grape but it’s Electric Sailor that is often cited as a renowned psychedelic classic. This track is pure late period garage rock at its finest including pounding drums, an incredible acid solo, light feedback, childish lyrics, and a great catchy chorus. The album opener HCO 97658 is very similar and pretty good, pounding briefly for about a minute and forty seconds. Other songs like I’ve Got Time and Flowing By have more of a country folk-rock vibe that took me a while to get into, but I now appreciate these tracks and the diversity of this album. Trieulogy is the album’s longest and strangest track at 8 plus minutes, but a good acid rock suite with sitars and great psychedelic solos. A piece of this suite, Rain was released as a single and is a very good slice of speed-induced guitar psych. The last track off the album, Lemonaide Kid received lots of radio play years ago and is a good Dylan influenced folk-rocker with sitar and tabla.

Overall, this is a very good album without any dud tracks, the musicians are topflight and there are some great acid ballroom antics, though I would not recommend this disc to new psych fans. A 1999 Big Beat reissue is the easiest way to obtain this obscure record.

“Electric Sailor”

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