SCARCE SWINGING LONDON = KALEIDOSCOPE TANGERINE DREAM PAISLEY PSYCH

$

62

               K A L E I D O S C O P E

                   Tangerine Dream

                                                UK - TOCK - 005

 With original printed UK inner sleeve

Long long gone exact BRITISH 2ndpress from near 30 years ago, believe, it's rare now! The fantastic sound quality reminds of direct from the original masters ... Set sail into the drifting phantasy of peaking Swinging London paisley popsike, 1967:

Kaleidoscope's Tangerine Dream is an absolute classic of the genre. Equally ranking with such classics as Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Tomorrow, Blossom Toes, Zombies and of course, The Beatles. Donovan-influenced singer Peter Daltrey's fairytale lyrics and the group’s exquisite playing, with beautiful harmonies and memorable hooks, simply captivate the listener transporting them into a colorful kaleidoscopic dream. This totally demonstrates what was so great about the fertile U.K. pop psych scene of '67 thru '69.   Released in 1967 on the crest of whimsical psychedelia, this debut album covers so much wonderful ground that it seems puzzling why it sold poorly until being re-discovered by record collectors via the Nuggets series. Perfect for Floyd fans who always liked Syd the best since some of the lyrical imagery and vocal delivery is almost the same, if not more cognizant. Some tunes are all heavy fuzz and loud Hammond organ that'll turn on a dime and become like a stoned Zombies and ride out waves of phased drums. Great guitar playing of all sorts, above average for the time and not at all show-offish. Not surprisingly, some of it sounds like the Beatles and Dylan folkrock. One would also say that this record is unmistakably British in the way that it revels in quaintness, history, and fairy tale-inspired content (not to mention record cover).   Unlike a lot of psych bands, Kaleidoscope employ mainly standard rock band instrumentation--the band's eponymous opening track opens mysteriously with the invocation, "Relax your eyes, for after all--we can but share these minutes," before kicking into an upbeat slice of popike propelled by piano, heavy drums, overdriven electric guitar and cascading vocal harmonies framing a simple melody and lyrics that describe the goings-on of the world as seen through a kaleidoscope. The track's buoyed by the wide-eyed energy of youth and, undoubtedly, wonderment at drug experiences. It's this guileless sincerity that lifts most of the album above its forgotten peers to the level of rewarding our ears over 40 years later. The arrangements continue to show a penchant for nylon-stringed guitar on the beautifully despondent "Please Excuse My Face." "Dive Into Yesterday" is one of the best tunes on the album, with some noisy surf-influenced guitar, a progressive arrangement, a gorgeous, droning/rippling bridge and a reprise of the "relax your eyes" invocation for added cohesion.

Familiar UK psych tropes crop up repeatedly--"Flight from Ashiya" and "Mr. Small, The Watch Repairer Man" tap into the pervasive influence of "Eleanor Rigby" in terms of illustrating human helplessness and the loneliness of outsider characters. The creative hooks make the tracks though; the former's jaunty pace and "we're poor little lambs/who've lost our way/bahh bahh bahh" effectively contrast the lyric's description of a plane crash in progress, and the latter brilliantly utilizes the familiar sound of a clock chime as the melody for the tale of a lonely watch repairer. The song's "la-la-la-la" refrain again strongly echoes Syd Barrett, as does "Arnold Layne"-esque "The Murder of Lewis Tollani." To round things off, there's also an overt Dylan influence in the words of "In The Room of Percussion" and elsewhere.

No review worth its salt consists merely of name-dropping and influence finger-pointing. The point is that the band managed to create an immensely enjoyable collection of songs in spite of telegraphing their influences. Peter Daltrey's (leader and singer) voice perfectly fits the material, capable of a rock edge but also of quavering sincerity, and the vocal lines are full of youthfully attractive harmony experiments that endearingly drop out when the line becomes too difficult. Likewise, the production sounds great. The piano, electric guitar and drums especially are miked so hot that they're right up in your face, and at its high points the album offers some extremely majestic moments. One of those is the nearly indefinitely-prolonged "The Sky Children" which sweeps by with an airy sing-song melody, catchy 12-string electric guitar and tinkling chimes. It's songs like this that get to the heart of why one continues to reach for this album--the innocent positivity and wonderment are so sincere that it's infectious, and to me that's the essence of the psychedelic movement. Through the a confluence of counter culture, newly-available information, social freedom and drugs, the youth of the 60's cohesively created their own movement based on love, experimentation and open-mindedness, and all the record companies could do was try and facilitate a genre they knew nothing about. This attitude shows in this music and even in the faces of the people who made it on the album cover--they were just kids themselves. On top of that, the album perfectly inhabits its moment in time with the immature "wisdom" and pseudo-moralizing of "A Lesson Perhaps," probably the album's weakest track. The pitfalls that ultimately undid the movement (naiveté and ignorance of the more complex and darker aspects of human interaction which would take much more real prominence at the end of the decade) already show in spite of the album's glistening beauty--a silver cloud with a dark lining.

According to the liner notes, some executives at Fontana had a lot of faith in Kaleidoscope's potential and poured a significant amount of money into this album and its follow-up, Faintly Blowing. Sadly, the fact that they gave Kaleidoscope a full-length LP deal before making the band prove themselves with a hit single (as was standard practice in the day) is reflected in the label's poor instincts in choosing singles for the album--"Flight From Ashiya" wouldn't be a first choice geared toward mass public appeal ("Kaleidoscope," anyone?), nor would the sub-"See Emily Play" tinkly toy piano of "A Dream for Julie." By the time they chose the sublimely catchy "Jenny Artichoke," it was 1968 and the psychedelic boat was sailing along with Kaleidoscope's chances of wide recognition. The band changed its name to Fairfield Parlour after Faintly Blowing and suffered more rather unjustified obscurity in a slightly more progressive vein before ultimately disbanding in 1972, when the psychedelic movement that spawned it was a distant memory. Though the movement was short-lived, one of its lasting benefits was the fact that record labels were much more open to funding and taking risks on bands they didn't quite understand in hopes that the kids would go crazy for it. A lot of great and eccentric albums would never have been made if not for this practice (including the entire progressive rock movement, for better or worse), and it sadly fell out of practice toward the mid-70's where the seeds of today's corporate music culture, with its willingness to autocratically tell listeners what they want and/or immediately seize and over-commercialize new music that listeners found for themselves, were sown. Still, Kaleidoscope's period piece first album remains a testament to the joys of innocence, Swinging London popsike, and searching that still sounds charming today.           

 Kaleidoscope
 Please Excuse My Face
 Dive Into Yesterday
 Mr. Small, The Watch Repairman
 Flight From Ashiya
 Murder Of Lewis Tollani
 (Further Reflections) In The Room Of Percussion
Dear Nellie Goodrich
 Holiday Maker
 A Lesson Perhaps
 Sky Children

CONDITION: The cover: Very fragile UK production is nice, rated: M- a TOP copy with bright original colors, no bends, no writing and no split seams... perfect in every way ....

The vinyl: all smooth and clear TOP M- looks and plays WONDERFUL!  

      A cool addition to anyone's music library!

SEE: SELLERS OTher items for similar cool sounds for "head" people...

EFFICIENT/CAREFUL GRADING

All imperfections are noted both cover & record