INTERSYSTEMS - FREE PSYCHEDELIC POSTER INSIDE (Streamline 1007) CD 51mStrange, very strange this! Intersystems were a Canadian 60's band whom I'd never heard of, and can't find any info on either. Though, apparently they made a few albums, it's obvious when you hear this CD, why they've remained so obscure! One musician in the band I know of, is John Mills-Cockell, one of the innovators of synth music in Canada, now widely known for his film soundtracks.Despite the album's title, this CD reissue contains no poster inside, and I've no idea if the original ever did. If it was marketed as a psychedelic rock album at the time, I'd imagine it got a puzzled or hostile response, though it is psychedelic, it's as far away from rock as you can get! Intersystems were an obscure quartet through and through, no instrumental details are given, so I'd have to guess that basically they were a trio of synthesizer, electronics and processing operators, with the fourth member handling the narration.But, what about the music? Not an easy thing to describe, I tell you! The instrumentation being basically electronic, starting shrill and intense, it's only rarely melodic, seemingly composed yet devoid of standard musical structure for the most part. Over this, in occasional morsels, we're told a strange "psychedelic story" by the narrator, the bizarreness of which, further enhances the overall weirdness! I'm reminded at times of some works by Robert Ashley or Alvin Lucier, in the context of voice over strange electronics, but the way Intersystems do it is all the more fascinating. Overall, it's a unique album, unparalleled and still remarkably fresh.review by Alan Freeman in Audion magazine 33 (1995).