Tracks from the LP, especially "Section 43", "Grace", and "Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine", were played on progressive FM rock stations like KSAN and KMPX in San Francisco, often back-to-back.

This embryonic version of the group, supplemented by Carl Shrager, Bill Steele and Mike Beardslee, recorded an initial EP in September of that year which was released as a "talking issue" of Rag Baby magazine a month later.

On June 6, this version of the group cut a self-titled second EP at Berkeley's Sierra Sound Laboratories released that July, featuring three songs ("Section 43", "Thing Called Love", and "Bass Strings") which would all be re-recorded for the debut album.

[2] In late November 1966 the group began trial recordings for the album at Sierra Sound Laboratories, but clashes between Joe and drummer John Francis Gunning led to the latter's abrupt firing.

[2] His replacement, Gary "Chicken" Hirsh, joined the group in time for an extended period of rehearsals at The Barn in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the weeks before Christmas 1966, where the new lineup gelled.

[2] The group were nervous to sing "Bass Strings" as the lyrics admitted they all smoked marijuana, which was a felony at the time; at the end of the track Joe can be heard whispering the letters "L-S-D".

[3] The song was influenced by Japanese music and employed a number of sonic additions including bells, chimes, water sound effects, and increasing echo delay, getting slower as it progresses.

"Flying High" was based on a real-life incident where Joe was stuck hitchhiking in the rain in Los Angeles, ignored by all the "straight" cars until finally picked up by two fellow hippies.

The album was received warmly on release with the Berkeley Gazette in glowing praise, stating that songs like "Bass Strings" and "Section 43" "employ echo chambers, distortion, and other electronic embellishments to augment the unique versatility of sound mixing the Fish compulsively indulge in...the mood is essentially psychedelic, with the texture of smoky colored glass.