POST NO. 25: KALEIDOSCOPIC ROCK

I have to thank my former fellow blogger Jon (over at getLevitation) for turning me on to the Love, Peace and Poetry compilation series, which collects psychedelic garage rock circa the late-'60s and early-'70s from around the world. There are eight volumes of the series available on both LP and CD, and you can find them all at Forced Exposure. Turn Me On Dead Man also has a list of the volumes on his site, which is well worth exploring if you dig garage rock. (Check out his online radio show too!)

I've been listening to all eight volumes for the past two months, and I'm so excited about them that I don't even know where to begin. As you'll find out as I hop continents for the rest of the week, there was a good deal of garage rock going on around the globe to parallel -- and in some cases, surpass -- the offerings of American and British bands so painstakingly detailed in the Nuggets series. I was planning to do an in-depth review of each volume, but that proved to be too time consuming. Plus, there isn't much information available concerning a lot of these bands, as their records were incredibly rare even in their day. But, I do want to spend this week highlighting an interesting song or two from five of the volumes.

We'll start with the Mexican volume. The only band among the 17 that are featured here that I was already familiar with was Dug Dug's, whom I stumbled upon in April. Even more impressive, to some degree, is Kaleidoscope, who are represented here by the song "Hang Out" from their 1969 self-titled album (which was originally pressed to only 200 copies). Like a brilliant blend of The Sonics with The Music Machine, Kaleidoscope's R&B-infused garage rock makes use of a potent farfisa riff (doubled up on kazoo!). Unlike most of the remainder of the Mexican volume, this particular song is sung in English.

Kaleidoscope - "Hang Out"

Kaleidoscope's self-titled album was reissued a few years ago in a limited pressing (surprise!) and can still be had for a good price on both CD and LP if you know where to look. For a bit more info on the band (who shouldn't be confused with their British contemporary), see Richie Unterberger's review at Allmusic. Tomorrow were heading to the largest continent on planet Earth...