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FAINTLY BLOWING

Kaleidoscope

Proto-Prog


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Kaleidoscope Faintly Blowing album cover
3.11 | 43 ratings | 5 reviews | 19% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1969

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Faintly Blowing (4:08)
2. Poem (2:53)
3. Snapdragon (2:42)
4. A Story From Tom Blitz (3:45)
5. (Love Song) For Annie (2:33)
6. If You So Wish (3:40)
7. Opinion (0:18)
8. Bless The Executioner (2:58)
9. Black Fjord (3:13)
10. The Feathered Tiger (5:09)
11. I'll Kiss You Once (0:57)
12. Music (6:08)

Total time 38:24

Bonus tracks on 2001 CD release:
13. A Dream For Julie
14. The Sky Children
15. Jenny Artichoke
16. Just How Much You Are
17. Do It Again For Jeffrey

Bonus Tracks on 2005 reissue:
13. Do It Again For Jeffrey (3:14)
14. Poem [Mono Single Version] (2:52)
15. Balloon (2:18)
16. If You So Wish [Mono Single Version] (3:40)
17. Special Bonus 17 Let The World Wash In (4:11) *
18. Mediaeval Masquerade (2:41) *

* By "I Luv Wight" band

Line-up / Musicians

- Peter Daltrey / lead vocals, keyboards
- Eddie Pumer / lead guitar, vocals, composer
- Steve Clark / bass
- Danny Bridgman / drums, vocals

Releases information

Artwork: Robin Nicol with Johnny Clamp (photo)

LP Fontana ‎- STL 5491 (1969, UK)
LP Sunbeam Records ‎- SBRLP5087 (2011, UK)

CD Si-Wan Records ‎- SRMC 0067 (2001, South Korea) With 5 bonus tracks
CD Repertoire Records ‎- REPUK 1047 (2005, UK) With 6 bonus tracks, all in Mono audio

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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KALEIDOSCOPE Faintly Blowing ratings distribution


3.11
(43 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of rock music(19%)
19%
Excellent addition to any rock music collection(37%)
37%
Good, but non-essential (28%)
28%
Collectors/fans only (14%)
14%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

KALEIDOSCOPE Faintly Blowing reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Easy Livin
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
2 stars Under the influence

"Faintly blowing" was Kaleidoscope's second, and last album before changing their name to Fairfeld Parlour. The album is certainly a slight development from their first release, but the music is still firmly rooted in the pop of the late 60's.

The BEATLES, Pye era STATUS QUO, early MOODY BLUES etc., are all clearly major influences on the music of the band, and indeed the lyrics. Interestingly, this album actually resembles GENESIS first album "From Genesis to revelation" in a number of places, most noticeably "(Love song) For Annie". The echoed power pop choruses here sound very similar to the Jonathan King production.

Vocally, the band are strong though the lead voice needs frequent harmonising to maintain that strength. Those harmonies are very much of their time, the bonus track "Do it again for Jeffrey" sounding very like US harmony outfit FAMILY DOGG.

The BEATLES influence is probably strongest on "A story from Tom Bitz", a "Norwegian Wood" like fantasy tale which tells of a man who is lured by a mysterious lady to drink something potent. He ends up in jail where a cowboy persuades him to steal a horse, and so it goes on. I don't think Tom Bitz was the only one under the influence when it was written!

It is only when we come to the band's swan-song "Music" that we get any real hint of their potential, and even then the first half of the six minute piece is a fairly straightforward piece of pop with a bit too much phasing. Towards the end, the track disappears into a psychedelic cacophony with the chorus fading in and out, and a quick choral burst of "Hark the herald angels sing"! It is far from great, but it does show that the potential was there for the band to move on to more adventurous things.

Sadly though, time had run out for Kaleidoscope. A third album was released under the same name in the early 90's, which in reality was unreleased material by Farfield Parlour from the mid 1970's.

As for the quaintly named "Faintly blowing", it is little more than a good collection of late 60's pop songs. Pleasant but unremarkable.

Review by Dobermensch
PROG REVIEWER
1 stars This is the album that started my long-term hate affair between myself and Kaleidoscope. 'Faintly Blowing' starts things off - and it's an an interminable opening track that seems to go on forever in it's four minute duration. It's so.... ordinary.

Kaleidoscope were clearly influenced by many contemporary psychedelic bands of their era. It's just a pity they didn't have an original idea in their heads.

Peter Daltrey isn't big enough to fill the boots of Syd Barrett or whoever else he's plagiarising and lacks any semblance of presence or gravitas. Basically 'Faintly Blowing' is an empty retread of their previous album and that ain't up to much either, but at least it's a damn sight better than this.

An album so dated and derivative, it has no function as a piece of entertainment. Jeez - and that's me only at track four out of eighteen! How am I going to get through this? That's it, I'm off for a bottle of wine...

At last it ends... although it doesn't so much end as collapse in a heap of its own ineptitude. Really dull with very little imagination. The highly effected vocal melodrama makes things even more painful and I find myself with furrowed brow, scowling at my evil computer wanting to punch it in the screen. Baah!

Latest members reviews

5 stars Magic Zoo and Electric Midnight Mist Faintly Blowing, the second full-length LP from Kaleidoscope, released in 1969, is arguably the finest LP from the British Psychedelic era. Pussy, Pussy Plays and The Open Mind's self-titled LPs are classics, but not as transcendent as this release. One co ... (read more)

Report this review (#1044135) | Posted by SpecialKindOfHell | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 | Review Permanlink

4 stars Kaledioscope's debut album, Tangerine Dream, was a trippy but mostly whimsical effort, more Magical Mystery Tour than Piper At the Gates of Dawn. However, with their second album, Faintly Blowing, they showed that their sound was evolving in a more experimental direction. Indeed, the realms of ... (read more)

Report this review (#131435) | Posted by jimidom | Thursday, August 2, 2007 | Review Permanlink

5 stars I can't believe anyone would give this a rating less than mercurial! Here I am to set it right and set the record straight. Faintly Blowing is a landmark album not just in psychedelic music, but in that genre as it turned into progresssive rock. Kaleidoscope, with their multi-hued sound and so ... (read more)

Report this review (#94024) | Posted by | Tuesday, October 10, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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