Guitarist Henry Kaiser wasn't just blowing paisley smoke when he inscribed the words a psychedelic dance party on an advance tape of this album a few months back. Heart's Desire is genuine fry-yer-mind fun. Recorded live with no studio funny business, it ping-pongs between heavy blooze, loony tunes and giddy acid jamming, rich with the motley strains of Jimi Hendrix, Richard Thompson, Captain Beefheart, Burt Bacharach and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

This double album (also available as a slightly abridged single CD) is actually an in-concert reprise of Kaiser's 1988 covers LP, Those Who Know History Are Doomed to Repeat It, in which he hot-wired great lost hits by Beefheart and the Grateful Dead. Four History numbers, including the Dead's epic "Dark Star," reappear on Heart's Desire. All but one of Kaiser's present band mates also played on History; the new recruit is Dead keyboard alumnus Tom Constanten.

While History was a refined studio testament to psychedelia's continuing vitality, the performances on Heart's Desire capture the rough, exploratory spirit of a late set at the Fillmore. Neil Young's song "The Loner," Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billy Joe" and "Are You Experienced?" all get extended freakout treatment, with Kaiser and second guitarist Bruce Anderson going on long, turbulent solo tangents. Robbie Robertson's "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" climaxes with a shower of staccato guitar shrapnel, while Richard Thompson's "Don't Let a Thief Steal Into Your Heart" is taken at a hopped-up avant-bar band groove.

Of course, when anything goes, anything can go awry. "Anyone Who Had a Heart" gets an ill-advised blues-rock mauling; Constanten's flat singing deep-sixes "The Ballad of Shane Muscatell." Also, the dominance of distinguished covers here does not always flatter the band's few originals. But whereas History was a conscious exercise in futurist psychedelia, this is a celebration of the free-flow performance style that characterized the ballroom glory days in San Francisco. Forget that tab of acid you've been saving for a rainy day – drop this on your Victrola instead and psych out to your heart's desire. (RS 578)

DAVID FRICKE