PHISH [AKA: THE WHITE TAPE]

This is Phish's first album, originally recorded in 1986 and distributed as one of their demo tapes during their early shows. It's a studio album, but a low budget one, and the bootlegs handed out didn't ahve the best audio quality. Nevertheless they cleaned it up quite well, but you will notice that the sound quality is limited in comparison to their other albums. It's a very good album, and probably their most experimental and progressive, but doesn't really fall into the prog genre.

The first part of the album is pretty much straight forward rock, albeit laid back rock. You'll hear mostly blues and jazz inspired songs, as well as several songs that would appear in a more developed form on later albums including The Divided Sky, Run Like an Antelope, You Enjoy Myself, Fluff's Travels, the Oh Kee Pa Ceremony and Slave to the Traffic Light. AC/DC Bag being part of the concept album Trey had written for his senior project. This second album "The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday" was never officially released, but live versions of all of the songs (which are superior to the studio versions) are available across the many live albums Phish has released.

The second half of the album is more instrumental, and a lot weirder. Songs like NO2 and He Ent to the Bog are quite trippy in some ways, and funny in others. It's quite psychedelic, and you can hear some velvet underground influence on some of these songs.

If you're a fan of Phish, and want to check out how they sounded when they were just starting out, definitely get this one. I wouldn't start with it though, it's a little bit too out there for some. Junta, Lawn Boy, Picture of Nectar and Rift are essential for prog fans though.