| Ptooff! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | first edition June 1968[1] second edition May 1969, onDecca[2] | |||
| Recorded | 1967 atSound Techniques, London, England | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 36:18 | |||
| Label | Underground Impresarios | |||
| Producer | Jonathan Weber | |||
| The Deviants chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [4] |
| Uncut |  [5] |
Ptooff! is the debut studioalbum by Englishpsychedelic rock bandThe Deviants.[6] It was released by mail order only in June 1968 by record label Underground Impresarios and given a more public wide release on Sire Records in 1969.
Mick Farren and Russell Hunter had met 21-year-old millionaire Nigel Samuel who funded the £700 required for the recording of the album.[citation needed]
Richie Unterberger ofAllMusic assessed that the band were "not much more than amateurs" at the time of the album's recording, saying they "squeezed every last ounce of skill and imagination out of their limited instrumental and compositional resources." He explained that the style present onPtooff! constitutes a fusion of "savagesocial commentary, overheated sexuallust,psychedelic jamming,blues riffs, and pretty acousticballads."[7] The staff ofBrooklynVegan wrote, "For all the whimsy going on inBritannia during this period, there would berebellion among some. Here was rebellion in all its glory. [...] This debut record was amiddle finger to all of that. It conjured an image of distrust in theflower power hooey they saw wherever they turned, as well as inthe establishment." The influence ofFrank Zappa andThe Fugs is apparent in the album's tracks. The album also contains elements ofR&B andavant-garde.[8]
Ptooff!! was released in 1968 and 8,000 copies were sold on their own Impresario label via mail order through the UKunderground press, such asOz andInternational Times, before being picked up and released byDecca Records.[9] The album is self-described on the inside cover asthe deviants underground l.p.
The album was re-released in the mid-1980s by record labelPsycho. The cover came in a six-panel fold-out with extensive notes, including a review byJohn Peel: "There is little that is not good, much that is excellent and the occasional flash of brilliance".[10] There are two quotations in thecartoon drawing that fills three panels; one of them, "When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the city shake!!", is a quote fromTuli Kupferberg.[11]Ptooff! was also re-issued on CD in 1992 by Drop Out Records.
Record Collector calledPtoof! "a compellingly itinerant squall of squat-crashing blues-psych-with- issues; the sound of caries and foetid flares."[12]
The staff ofBrooklynVegan included the album in the site's list of the 50 best psychedelic rock albums, writing, "this is another record that must have made people at the time go “what the hell.”[13]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Opening" | Sid Bishop,Mick Farren, Russell Hunter, Cord Rees, Steve Sparks | 0:08 |
| 2. | "I'm Coming Home" | Bishop, Farren, Hunter | 5:59 |
| 3. | "Child of the Sky" | Farren, Rees, Hammond | 4:32 |
| 4. | "Charlie" | Bishop, Farren | 3:56 |
| 5. | "Nothing Man" | Farren, Moore | 4:21 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Garbage" | Bishop, Farren, Hunter | 5:36 |
| 2. | "Bun" | Rees | 2:42 |
| 3. | "Deviation Street" | Farren | 9:01 |
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