Do you pay attention to current pop music? We don’t, really, but every once in a while we clear a sample for this star or that – and, in the realm of mega stars that might be caught singing over a deep sample, there are few that go deeper than Beyonce (and, to be fair, her stable of producers).
So, if you caught her Just Blaze-produced “Freedom” off of her latest album Lemonade and thought that the track sounded familiar, that’s because it came from one of our favorite garage-psych records of all times – the self titled, and only, record by the Puerto Rican band Kaleidoscope, who recorded their album in the Dominican Republic and saw it issued in a promotional run of two-hundred copies on Mexico’s Orfeon label. It’s gone on to become one of the sought after artifacts of the late 60s world-rock scene, with clean copies – when the surface – selling for upwards of $8,000.
The German reissue label Shadoks – with whom we’ve issued a number of Zamrock titles – licensed the album through the band’s leader, guitarist and vocalist Frank Tirado, and issued it on CD and LP. We approached Frank and got the rights to license Kaleidoscope’s impossible to imitate music on both master and publishing sides – and, at the urging of Shadoks Thomas Hartlage, have made it available for digital purchase for the first time ever. Download a sample song below and if you like what you hear – and we’re almost certain you will – support the release of global wonders by purchasing the entire album.
Download: Kaleidoscope – Let Me Try
Buy: Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope on Itunes.