Search - Kaleidoscope :: Tangerine Dream

Quintessential English psych, songwriting still holds up wel

Elliot Knapp | Seattle, Washington United States | 10/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"From a ways away, the cover of Kaleidoscope's (not to be confused with the US band of the exact same name) debut album, Tangerine Dream, resembles many other late 60's psychedelic album covers from both sides of the Atlantic; weird, swirly text, and a bunch of guys dressed in the outlandish fashion that was popular during those acid-fueled days. If you look a little closer, you'll notice that these guys were really just baby-faced kids when this album came out (even if one of them could grow a mustache). Despite their apparent fresh-faced youth and their attachment to a VERY popular musical movement that spawned as many middling bands as it did classics, today Tangerine Dream sounds like a cohesive, well-crafted psychedelic pop rock album, thanks especially to Peter Daltrey and Eddie Pumer's engaging songwriting, and some more original sounds and hooks that the band packed into the music.



The opener, "Kaleidoscope," makes it clear that this is 1967 British psych: a driving piano riff backs harmonizing vocals as they describe a vibrant perception of busy streets. Yep, we're in trip-land now, and if you don't like that kind of music, you're probably in the wrong place, because Tangerine Dream is catchy, trippy rock from start to finish. What's great is that even though Kaleidoscope is playing in an idiom sparked by the Beatles with Sgt. Pepper etc., they certainly aren't derivative. Less hard-rocking than, say, The Move or the Small Faces, and not quite as virtuosic as The Soft Machine--more along the sweet, off-kilter sounds of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn-era Pink Floyd, or Tomorrow.



The rest of the album is chock full of accessible moments, but also the British quirk and charm that makes this type of music resonate so well with some people. The creatively-titled "Please Excuse My Face" is a tender, vulnerable heartbreak tune set to nylon-stringed acoustic. "Dive Into Yesterday" might be my favorite track, with staccato morse-code-sounding guitar, shifting tempo and dynamics, snaky vocal harmonies, and a blissed-out, swirling bridge. You can tell Daltrey was influenced by Dylan (unsurprising, and not a bad thing), but he manages to go some really interesting and unique places with his writing.



Many of the songs have the dark themes of isolation commonly found in British psych, like "Mr. Small, The Watch Repairer Man," "Flight From Ashiya" (about a doomed airline flight), and "The Murder of Lewis Tollani." Despite these weighty themes, Daltrey pulls it off with grace, a light hand, and manages to back the words with music that isn't depressing. "In The Room of Percussion" has edgier echoes of the Byrds, and the album's closer, the epic "The Sky Children," is absolutely sublime, dreamy, and perfect. In my opinion, the only misstep is "A Lesson Perhaps," a spoken-word/classical guitar story that gets a bit too caught up in forced poetics to really make a strong point.



Overall, this is one of the better British psych albums I've come across--I've enjoyed it enough to check out their second, Faintly Blowing. As with their usual standards, Repertoire's reissue is great--glossy digipak case, lots of photos (check out those guys' clothes and hairstyles!), some enlightening notes, and some worthwhile bonus tracks--single versions of a few, and the flawless, jaunty pop of "Jenny Artichoke." Since Kaleidoscope had to make a few hit singles before a record company would invest in Tangerine Dream, it's cool to hear the songs that got them their record deal. If you like British psychedelic, chances are you'll enjoy this record."

The other KALEIDOSCOPE is more fun

W. T. Hoffman | Pennsylvania, United States | 10/10/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Its 1967, you need a "psychedelic" name to pin on your old blues/R&B covers band, and the most obvious purveyors of psychedelia are the Beatles with their SGT PEPPER album. So, why not use KALEIDOSCOPE as a name? Or, TANGERINE DREAM for an album title? Both words figured largely in LUCY IN THE SKY. Back in those days, apparently you couldnt find out that the same name was in use in the USA, by a much better "underground" psychedelic band doing freak out folk/blues music. Oh well, nicking the ideas of your peers must have been big back then, cos we all know what happened to the TANERGINE DREAM album title in Germany. At least their music sounds original, right? Well...Actually, even tho I cant place this album among the great achievements of 1967, its not a total failure. Many of these songs didn't survived the years without sounding precious and coy, but the album does have its moments worth hearing.



About a third of the songs deserve to be remembered as part of the SUMMER OF LOVE psychedelic scene. IN THE ROOM OF PERCUSSION i'd first heard on the Decca records box set STRANGE PLEASURES, and thought sounded pretty trippy, and unusual. Along with their "single" FLIGHT FROM ASHIYA, its one of the outstanding gems found here. Overall, the band sounds like an amalgamation of DONOVAN, the folk-pop BEE GEES from that era, and at its best, some of Syd's childlike composistions off the first PINK FLOYD album. Throw in a bit of MOODY BLUES, and you got the recipe. On the second side of the album, there's an 8 minute song, but dont get your hopes up for a ASTRONOMY DOMINE freakout, or a Dylanesque wordstew. Instead its an overly long folk song talking about a "magic pixie island", which is a total gas if your thing is magic pixies climbing on the breeze tinkling bells, etc. Marc Bolan's TYRANNOSAURUS REX, or Donovan's WEAR YOUR LOVE LIKE HEAVEN might have been what they were after, but these guys just didnt have the stuff. Along with the whole first album, you get three additional singles, A and B sides, all of which failed to chart. The horn charts off HOLIDAY MAKER (Ashiya's B side), make the song trite, even if the jumpy melodies and oddly stacked harmonies give the song that "Kaleidoscope" trademark sound. A DREAM FOR JULIE doesnt cut it either, neither does the B side's folk song. JENNY ARTICHOKE must have sounded stale even in 1968.



Overall, not an album for people who don't enjoy DONOVAN's quaintest moments, MOODY BLUES, or early folk BEE GEES. It's not an album I'll listen to much outside of the three really cool songs that surpass the dross. That's the problem with some of these albums whose reputations rest more on their rarity and a handful of cool songs. For British Psychedelic folk or pop, these guys aren't the worst you can do, but they're not anywhere near the best work done in those heady days. Overall, this album was a bit of a disappointment for me."