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Baker's Dozen

Thirteen Albums I Currently Like, From A To M. By Stephin Merritt
The Quietus , March 15th, 2017 10:42

As he releases new Magnetic Fields album 50 Song Memoir, Stephin Merritt doesn't delve into the past for his Baker's Dozen list but instead gives tQ an A-Z of some contemporary favourites, from Japan to Marc Almond, bawdy cockney songs and the BBC Radiophonic Workship. Pic by Marcelo Krasilcic

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K: Kaleidoscope - Tangerine Dream
Half a century ago in 1967 there were two Kaleidoscopes, one in the US and one in the UK. Both were wonderful, but the UK band sang endearing lines such as "My god! The spiders are everywhere!" so I'll just write about them for now.  Probably the tinniest band of the 60s, they never achieved mass popularity but psychedelic fan lists rate them higher than the era's supposed classics, due to their ecstatic melodies and gleefully oblique lyrics. "Strawberry monkeys are smiling for Julie, with pearl button eyes that reflect velvet clouds. Can you hear them smiling?" They changed their name to the Fairfield Parlour and stayed just as great. Now that the competition is quickly disappearing, they should get back together and be the most popular pop-psych band in the world, instead of merely the best. If they're missing some members, they can just take them from Kaleidoscope USA.