The time.......late 69 -early 70
The place.......Detroit Michigan
The Band......Four teenage youths
The music......Pristine Psychedelic
When the band began no one was old enough to drive – the keyboard player being only 14. And while each of the folks that made up Mystic Siva are still around, it seems like no one really has wanted to take the time to write a proper bio or unpack this disc. The World in Sound imprint, out of Germany, has made the album available on cd and their site has a brief statement from band members, but apart from that, there’s scant info on these folks. WiS, though, explains that the family members of each musician were heavily involved due to how old all these kids were. There were parents chauffeuring people back and forth in addition to helping to book shows while convincing venue owners that Mystic Siva might be young, but not too young to play out.
Coming from Detroit, the band - Al Tozzi (guitar), Dave Mascarin (drums, vocals), Marc Heckert (organ, vocals) and Art Thienel (bass, vocals) – sounded tied to its place on earth while not being and MC5 or a Stooges rip off band. It’s self titled debut, at this late date, fetches thousands of dollars in the market place. And while that price tag is ridiculous regardless of what record it’s affixed to, the middle of the road garage and psych that Mystic Siva gets into makes the devotion to its album seem all the more confusing. It is hard to imagine the teens involved could produce a masterpiece at that time. The studio and live LP's are included( with original artwork). To get the full impact purchase the re-released packages.
