Not to be confused with (or I guess, to be confused with) the U.S. Kaleidoscope which featured David Lindley and who backed Larry Williams and Johnny "Guitar" Watson on that brilliant one-off single "Nobody" among other wildly amusing efforts on their own, is the U.K. Kaleidoscope whose two lost psychedelic classics have now been compiled with bonus material on a new and highly recommended and affordable 2 CD set that is making me go apeshit.
The comparisons are easy. Early Floyd comes to mind right away. But there is something much sweeter under the weirdness and occasionally overblown production. It's in the melodies and vocals, which at times reminds me of what Jon Auer & Ken Stringfellow have given us in The Posies or even the Gibb Brothers on the early Bee Gees records.
"Dive Into Yesterday" from their debut "Tangerine Dream" is the one illustrates exactly that. My ears hear The Posies on the verses and Syd Barrett-era Floyd on the choruses and of course production. "Flight From Ashiya" would not have sounded out of place on The Bee Gees debut.
Not everything works, of course. But more than enough of it does, if you like this type of stuff...and I really do...especially the title track off their second and last LP, "Faintly Blowing."
7 comments:
Very Groovy Sal -- and I mean that in the best possible way.
Stay cool!
This is a great band. Discovering music like this is why I keep looking. I found them on a blog a couple years ago. Here is the post I wrote over at "Now That's What I Call Bullshit"
http://alanwalkerart.com/wp/?p=916
After the first two albums they changed labels (Vertigo), and their name to "Fairfield Parlour", under which they were billed at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival, and released "From Home To Home". I just saw that it's been re-released under the Kaleidoscope moniker and is available as an expensive import at Amazon.
There is a fourth entitled "The White Lady", recorded in 1971, but not released until 1993.
Both worth seeking out.
Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman hired The Larry And Johnny Show to produce a session which devolved into "Train Song", the last Burrito's song involving Gram.
Apparently Larry and Johnny spent the whole time in the control room doing drugs and telling the guys over the talkback, "Sounds great, guys".
UK's Kaleidoscope & Fairfield Parlour on tour!!! 3 days to go guys, and we're a ways away. Take a look, dig deep into your hearts, deeper into your wallets, and spend a few bucks. Trust me, next year you will kiss yourself for it when you are witnessing the magic that is Peter Daltrey.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/154782957/peter-daltrey-of-kaleidoscope-and-fairfield-parlou
BBJ directed me their way a week or two ago, truly excellent stuff.
blossom toes..kaleidoscope...indeed sir. i recommend in the highest possible terms you check out both THE END and of course JULY if you don't know them already
I'm sorry, the fourth album is "White Faced Lady".
Have you heard Brian Davison's (Nice drummer) "Every Which Way"?
That's another.
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