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The Kaleidoscope

A Beacon from Mars (LP)

Label: Epoque Records

Format: LP

Genre: Psych

Out of stock

Grey-area repro from this Akarma-related sublabel. Wielding a battery of exotic instruments that once adorned a thrift-shop front window (bazouki, oud, vina, saz, doumbeg), the Kaleidoscope was every bit as multi-hued and subject-to-change as the telescope full of bright bits of colored glass the band was named after. If there had been a prize for the most eclectic psychedelic outfit, L.A.’s Kaleidoscope would have had it stashed on a shelf—between the hookah pipes and the bowling trophies—in the band’s rehearsal space. Formed by multi-instrumentalists David Lindley and Chris Darrow, with a membership that also included multi-instrumentalist Solomon Feldthouse and multi-instrumentalists Max Buda, Chester Crill and Fenrus Epp (all the same person!) along with drummer John Vidican, this wildly experimental outfit pioneered what would become the world-music genre by darting deftly between rock, folk, blues, Cajun, country, Middle Eastern, good-time ballads and Eastern European styles, with plenty of full-blown psychedelia on the side. It’s an exotically diverse approach, explored to great effect on 1968’s A Beacon from Mars, Kaleidoscope’s second LP (the working title for the album was Bacon from Mars).

Just float your head through the buoyant, sprawling, mystical title track; the driving, raga-esque “Taxim”; or the graceful opener, “I Found Out,” which unfolds like the tender petals of a young rose. Beacon from Mars is an album no fan of ’60s West Coast psych can afford to miss!

Details
Cat. number: EP 1230
Year: 2017
Notes:
A4 and B4 recorded live with no overdubs. Originally released in 1968. (p) 1969 Epic (c) 1982 Epoque Records A product of Epoque Records/Melbourne Australia, 3003