KALEIDOSCOPE Tangerine Dream PSYCH LP Fairfield Parlour

	£		29
	$		38

KALEIDOSCOPE (UK): Tangerine Dream
Long gone UK Reissue LP released on 5 Hours Back Records in 1987.
Catalogue No. TOCK 005
Disc is in NM condition
Sleeve is in EX(-) condition

No relation to the American or Mexican Kaleidoscope, though this British group was also psychedelic, and was active at almost exactly the same time in the late '60s. Highly esteemed by collectors, Kaleidoscope epitomized certain of the more precious traits of British psychedelia with their fairy-tale lyrics and gentle, swirling folky sound. At times they sound like a far more melodic and accessible Incredible String Band. Their folky ballads have aged best, and there's period charm to be found throughout their two albums. Although they had a solid underground reputation in Britain, they never found wide success, and evolved into a similar group, Fairfield Parlour, by the end of the '60s.

Here's a cool review of this LP:
A large building, brilliantly white, stands tall and commanding before a square, equally impressive in size and comprising paving slabs of comparable radiant hue. The square is transiently populated by a stream of diverse characters, each with their own purpose and none seeming to be out of place. Gentlemen extravagantly doff their hats in salute of demure young ladies. Youths navigate their bicycles along precarious routes. Urchins dash hither and thither; their mischief to perform. Music abounds, though the venerable bandstand is empty; the source today being the moderately sized fun-fair that holds court in a nearby park. The stalls are somewhat shabby and thus blend in particularly well with the faded dinginess of the rows of small shops and houses that skulk in the shadows of the luminous edifice. A curious, intangible malevolence resides in this veiled underworld. To some, this place is evil incarnate. They are the transparent ones, attracted to the noise, the openess, the irradiance of the bustling square. Their worst fears reside but a few yards away in the malignant, opaque places where uncertainty and unspeakable forces hold sway.......

Whenever I listen to "Tangerine Dream", the debut album by Kaleidoscope, in my mind's eye I always see a vision of the scene that I have described above. I listen to the album quite often because it is a masterpiece of 1960s pop music, and I love 1960s pop music. There is a unique atmosphere present in this collection of songs. A slightly musty, Edwardian, English country garden type of atmosphere. It's as if these songs were written when the British Empire was at it's zenith and then buried in a time capsule, to be re-discovered just in time for the "psychedelic" era. There are songs of adventurers, songs of genteel longing, songs of inspired fantasy, songs of everyday domestic life, songs of brightness, songs of darkness, songs of tragedy, songs of life and songs of death. Lots of death. Unavoidable death. Malignant, opaque, unspeakable death. Yet a lustrous splendour masks the morbidity with a cheerful, kaleidoscopic cloak, greatly enhanced by a wonderfully uplifting closing track.

Tracks Are :
Side One
Kaleidoscope
Please Excuse My Face
Dive Into Yesterday
Mr. Small, The Watch Repairer Man
Flight From Ashiya
The Murder Of Lewis Tollani

Side Two
(Further Reflections) In The Room Of Percussion
Dear Nellie Goodrich
Holidaymaker
A Lesson, Perhaps
The Sky Children

Postage indicated in the auction is not the actual postage as ebay doesn't allow a higher postage then 4 GBP in this category. Postage for this item is 8 GBP within Europe and 15 GBP for the rest of the world. This is up to 2kg, so you can add up to 5 more LP's for the same postage.
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