This sophomore effort from the male half of Germany?s psychedelic folk duo Fit & Limo (with drumming duties split between UFO and Haffi), ?AAAHH!? is a dozen hippy-dippy, trippy pop paeons to the psychedelic psyxties. Divided, album-like, into two roughly half-hour sides, ?Innocence? and ?Experience? (literally named after William Blake?s ?Songs of Innocence & Experience), its sitars, autoharps, mellotrons, chamberlins, Farfisa and Korg keyboards and Limo?s effeminate, ephemeral, softer-than-clouds vocals, the album takes its place alongside other classic art-i-ficial arty facts of the sixties as the Dukes of Stratosphear?s compilation, ?Chips from the Chocolate Fireball? and fellow one-man bands, The Squires of the Subterrain?s ?Liquid Sundays,? Orange Alabaster Mushroom?s ?Space and Time? and Dementia 13?s ?Mirror Mind.? Like its forebearers, it is in many ways better than any number of high-priced, ?original lost albums? trading for ridiculous sums at record fairs and online auctions.

The swirling strings of the Nereide Neith Trio coupled with Limo?s phased vocals help transform ?Flashed? into a minor-key masterpiece, with enough ?Sgt. Pepper?/?Magical Mystery Tour? references to fill a doctoral dissertation. The swirling, phased-vocal pyrotechnics also add a distinct, disorienting touch to the ominously nightmarish ?Amazing Everyday World.? The light and airy swaying melody on the string-drenched ?Student of Astrology? makes it the perfect single and opening introduciton to the project and wouldn?t have been out of place on either of Donovan?s ?Mellow Yellow? or ?Sunshine Superman? albums.

Limo double tracks his vocals (one whispered, one sung) on ?Stars Flaming,? and its sleepy, Eastern-flavored vibe combines sitars and strings to weave a magic carpet to lift the listener to higher planes of existence. The 22-minute duo of ?Lavender Hill/Drive The Hours Away? and ?Glass Harmonica? anchors the heavier, mostly instrumental B-side (the ?Experience? side) of the disk, which ventures into mystical krautrock territory with signposts of C/Kluster, Popol Vuh and Tangerine Dream up ahead. The former?s lengthy musical passages include distorted, phased guitars and phosphorescent floating clouds of keyboards wafting through the soft purple haze of your mind. You will hear colors and see sounds on this magical mystical tour to inner peace. The latter?s spooky, sci-fi electronic opening prepares the listener for an astral journey across the space outside your ears as vivid as the former?s internal examination of what lies between them. Tentative, syncopated, highly percussive, and omni-dimensional, it?s the musical equivalent of a Joyce novel in effectively capturing sensory overload. And your senses will certainly be working overtime experiencing one of the year?s dizziest and finest releases to date. 9/10 -- Jeff Penczak (16 June, 2005)