Platter Chatter: Albums from The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Cream and Kaleidoscope
uncredited writer, Hit Parader, April 1968
BEACON FROM MARS/THE KALEIDOSCOPE — Here is the most versatile band we have ever heard. You want ragtime? Listen to 'Baldheaded End OfA Broom' which bings back early Spoonful fun. Lovely bass, good mandolin and harmonica. How about authentic hillbilly music? 'Louisiana Man' hunts muskrats in the swamps to bagpipe-sounding fiddles, embellished in drums, of course. Or hard blues? They make good use of their instruments. fuzzed up on the tense, electric 'You Don't Love Me'. High register harmonica screams over a heavy swing bottom. Excellent tension contrasts. 'I Found Out' is a medium tempo folkish tune. 'Greenwood Sidee', is a slow, emotional Scottish ballad of death, again with bagpipe fiddles and death roll drums. 'Life Will Pass You By', is a Byrd-like song with hillbilly twang harmony and mandolin. 'Taxim' is a long oriental-sounding instrumental, featuring excellent musicianship on caz, oud, harp guitar. (EPIC BN 26333)
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