DIVE INTO YESTERDAY

Kaleidoscope are a short lived band firmly rooted in the 1960's. They went through their formative years in the guise of variously named bands before releasing two albums in the late 60's. They then changed their name again (to Fairfield Parlour) and recorded a further album. Legend had it that they then recorded another concept album after that which lay unreleased. This proved to be true in 1991 when a posthumous album "White-faced lady" was released under the Kaleidoscope name. In reality, they had by the time that album was recorded become Fairfield Parlour, the decision to use the former name for the album giving a clear indication of which was felt to be the more marketable.

Kaleidoscope's two 1960's releases did not sell well at the time of their release, original LPs now selling for inflated amounts. Fortunately, such expense can be avoided through this nicely put together compilation, which features a good selection of tracks from their two albums. Also included are a number of songs which were not on those albums at the time, but became bonus tracks on the CD reissues.

The tracks are pretty much chronological, and in the order they appeared on the two albums, with space being found for no less than 23 tracks on a single CD. That in itself betrays the simplicity of what we have here, with the vast majority of the tracks lasting around three minutes. Certainly, each piece is well crafted with sometimes complex vocal harmonies and often two or three themes and moods to a single piece. There is however virtually a total absence of instrumental breaks, which when combined with the light pop driven nature of the vocals gives the songs a lightweight feel.

Even the rare longer tracks such as "The sky children" and "Music" are little more than 3 minute songs extended through additional verses, although the latter does drift off into the phased psychedelic sounds of early Pink Floyd. Consequently, what we have here is pleasant 60's sophisticated pop.

The package is sympathetically put together, with useful sleeve notes, and suitably psychedelic illustrations.