Customer Reviews

Dive Into Yesterday

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Interestingly, there are 2 Kaleidoscope in the 60's, one in US, one in UK, and both are minor lost gem of psychedelic era. This CD is the UK one's, which is not the world-music inferenced US groups's music. Largely comprising colour whimsical pop, songs like "Dive into yesterday", "Murder Of Lewis Tollani" and "Sky Children" make you feel that they are Syd Barret's rival(really good stuff), unfortunately, the latter songs lost the freshiness and are trite. A better choice is to buy their album "tangerine dream", which contains all the good tracks here and lots of other great stuff, but it's long out-of-print. So this collection may be a good start.

I ordered "Tangerine Dream" back in July but the shippment kept getting delayed so I ordered "Drive into Yesterday".This is an excellant disc. As others have noted, the music from "Tangerine Dream" is very much in the "Sgt. Pepper" / "Piper at the Gates" mode. "Tangerine Dream" possess the paisley florid aspect of Psychedelia with out the twinges of mandess that Pepper & Piper possess.
The disc also includes the album "Faintly Blowing" in it's entirety. "Faintly Blowing" is a Psychedelic classic as well with a more progressive edge. The songs have more formal structure and more emphasis on rhythm then those on "Tangerine Dream". I do wish that the 1st two songs from "Tangerine Dream" (Kaleidescope & Please Excuse My Face) were include instead of the singles from 1968. Those songs however, are well worth owning.
Peter Daltrey's lyrics are not quite up to the level of Syd Barrett or John Lennon's Psychedelic best. They sometime more readily approach the triteness of The Incredible String Band but many of the lyrics are often compelling and hypnotic. The instrumentation, though never virtuosic, is always interesting propelling the songs forward with the right mood and / or momentum.I was so impressed by Kaleidescope / Fairfield Parlour, I purchased "From Home to Home & "White Faced Lady" as well. "From Home to Home" is in the same vein as "Faintly Blowing" with some Moody Blues type touches (flutes, acoustic guitars, & melletrons). "White Faced Lady" is a rock opera about a Marilyn Monroe type actress who comes to tragic end. This is really their materpiece, every bit as engaging as "Tommy" & S. F. Sorrows". Actually, each albums builds on the stengths of the previous one as the lyrics & music become more complex.
If you are like me, and love British pop / rock circa 66 - 70 and you still listen to the Beatles, Moody Blues, & early Pink Floyd, you will love these 3 discs. By purchasing all three, you wind up with almost 70 songs.

Some other great albums from the same era:

S. F. Sorrows: The Pretty Things
Ogden's Nut Gone Flake: Small Faces
Music From a Doll House: The Family
Odessey & Oracle: Zombies
Disreali Gears: Cream
Heavin is in You Mind: Traffic
Search of the Lost Chord: Moody Blues
Magical Mystery Tour: Beatles

I just recently discovered Kaleidoscope and am a bit taken aback that they're such a hidden and forgotten band. I have no idea how popular they might have been back in the 1960's, but I had never heard of them, and I've been a music freak since the mid-1970's.

So what is Kaleidoscope like? Well, to say they are original and stand out from the crowd would be lying. They are typical English psychedelic pop-rock from the 1960's. Some songs sound much like the Beatles, some sound a lot more like Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd, others sound a lot like Tomorrow (another fantastic forgotten band from the era), and others sound somewhat like the Rolling Stones (circa Satanic Majesty's Request).

But when I use the word "typical" to describe them, I do not mean to imply that Kaleidoscope were run-of-the-mill. Far from it. This album is packed to the gills with gorgeous psychedelic pop melodies. Song after song after song we hear a band that was simply overflowing with inspiration and talent (if not originality).

If you are a fan of the aforementioned bands (or Donovan), you should do yourself a favor and purchase this album. You, like me, will scratch your head and wonder how such a talented band could be so lost in the shuffle of time.

(And am I the only one who thinks the song "The Sky Children" sounds EXACTLY like Belle & Sebastian? Maybe B&S need to send some royalty checks to Kaleidoscope.)

For one year, this was the band of my life. I truly adured the "Faintly Blowing" album (which is included entiery here), it has the British Psychadelic sounds on it, the Lyrics are very "Mead-evilish", "King Arthurish". Beutiful melodies, truly great songs.

This c.d. includes the most of the band's first album "Tangerine dream", and the entire "Faintly blowin" which is more prog than the former.

Those guys wrote some beutiful songs!

In the mid 80's a lot of compilations from bam caruso came out and the wave of neo psychedelia had a lot to rediscover.. I then found the gatefodld fontana Bootlegg (must be) of Faintly Blowing and later a 7" with "murder of lewis tollani" and other 3 songs.. probably from a bbc radio thing (dive into yesterday had a spoken intro). It's brilliant stuff, and I suggest to let the bad clones (belle and sebastian ?) and go for the real thins. Get the Bam Caruso Rubble series even a 20 - 40 years later.
There's not much about Kaleidoscope, something inside Rubble and Peter Daltrey has a myspace page.. check it out..

This is a great cd. It's ALMOST perfect. The thing that bugs me about it is the Nico like voice, and thats only after listening to half the album. BUT dont let that stop you from buying this. ITS DEFFINATELY WORTH IT!