If Akron’s associated with a specific type of music, it’s not introspective, low fidelity psych stuff. And if it was, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the eighties. Oddly, though, that’s the time and place Dimentia 13 sprung from.

Fronted by Brad Warner, one time basser for Zero Defects, who were included on the P.E.A.C.E./War compilation also featuring Crass, the Dead Kennedys amongst others, Dimentia 13 frequently find themselves stuck into a line of players which includes Syd Barrett and Skip Spence as figureheads. While there’s not as folksy a vibe on Dimetia’s first album, although there’s some, the sixties as a whole serve as a proper source material.

Influenced by those aforementioned folks, Dimentia unfortunately wasn’t able to craft work as strong as its apparent legacy leads on to believe. The fact that psych of this nature again gained footing in the underground during the eighties probably points to how the band was able to record a number of albums over a relatively short period of time. None of it’s a complete bummer, but at times, it all seems cartoonish and disposable.

The bands first record, issued in 1985, sports downers like “Famer Brown,” finding Warner crooning like a kid drunk on his parents stash of wine. And while that could in some settings be construed as a positive, the plainly placid riffs functioning as backing for most of the album aren’t the right place.

Even with its ridiculous name “Lysergic Mental Vibrations,” momentarily, runs through some dark, repetitive psych. Disregard those pre-programmed drums and focus on that minimal groove the band works up. Until the arena-rock guitar solos get in the way, the track marks a high point for the album. But including riffage perhaps befitting Van Halen makes sense when looking at the release date of the disc. It might just be that, relatively obscure Ohio psych bands all tossed in some questionable music references – Al Simones, though, did it less intrusively.

Later, after better establishing itself as new fangled psych contenders, Dimentia 13 was somehow able to wrangle a member of Plasticland to produce an album. That whole endeavor may have come off a far sight better than this earlier work, but doesn’t mitigate the middle of the road fair here. Obviously, hailing from the Midwest didn’t help these guys – or Plasticland. So, it’s worth wondering if located elsewhere, would Dimetia have been able to land itself significant historical importance.