Legendary SWINGING LONDON THE KOOBAS 1969 PAISELY POP PSYCH UK UNDERGROUND

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• '69 LONDON PAISLEY POP-SCENE
  
• UNDEGROUND GROOVE-IN
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• ~ The KOOBAS ~
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• The KOOBAS

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• "Made In England" - "Caraby Botique" X2LP
  
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• MINTY CLEAN ... highest-end 2nd print, may be equal to the '69 UK first print visuals & audio ... this is far superior to the British
  
• "Bam Caruso" from the early UK-only issue.
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• CONTAINS THE "BACK-FLAP" (original styled seams & laminated pressing to the '69 cover)
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• Released as The KOOBAS but re-titled by the later 'Bam Caruso' issue with the more evocative Barricades, the album was the band’s last hurrah after their super-sadly overlooked series of failed singles.
  
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• Among those “The First Cut is the Deepest,” and they turned out to be capable of so much more.
  This '69 "BARRICADES" LP was like letting the BIRD out of a cage. Perhaps too-heavy channel phasing ... “Royston Rose” opens up the album with a blast that sounds like THE mighty KOOBA's  at the top of its game, not launching what would be a last gasp. A their commercial potential, Koobas turned to the guitar-heavy exploits of fellow UK legends as The Creation, and the driving lead riff and bass (listen to it in mono!) comes off like the kind of psychedelic pop The Who aimed for at the time but didn’t quite reach.
  
  One can’t stress enough how revelatory this mono mix is. The separation on the otherwise terrific-sounding later 'Bam Caruso' re-release LP gets at the band’s experimentation, but the dedicated monaural mix boosts the bass and unifies their sound into something that you’d think would have been an undeniable radio hit, pushing the fuzzy limits of a tiny transistor radio speakers and booming out of a tube-powered mid-century console.
  
  The Koobas opened their defining statement with a declaration of power, but after a cheeky spoken-word intro explaining “We have a number about something everybody needs … friends,” they respond to “With a Little Help from My Friends” with a heartbreaking should-be-a-staple. “Where are the Friends” opens with an almost sobbing melody, delivered with power and arranged with a shifting inventiveness, from martial drum beats to aching harmonies to fuzz-tone guitar.
  
  The KOOBA'S were founded by drummer John Morris, but he ended up playing their manager and assembled what would be the core group in  guitarist Roy Morris, bassist Keith Ellis and drummer Tony O’Reilly.
  THE KOOBA'S were a power-trio format, capable of that heavy rock sound, but the band’s pop-psych infectious song instincts leaned to the baroque. In other hands, the music hallish “Here’s A Day” would have come across as more "toy-town groovy pop"; even then, melodramatic spoken-word interludes suggests a flamboyant theatricality, but the central harmonies area propelled by O’Reilly’s drumming and the robust voices-in-unison cannot be denied in overall coolness in the spirit of "the swinging UK London paisely teen scene."
  
  The aformentioned Bam Caruso re-issue was justified in promoting “Barricades” to their title cut.
  So, this ambitious production opens with pounding keys and melodic shifts, which careen from explosive guitar to actual explosions, suit anthemic lyrics that call for, “symphonic riots through the streets.” This is a distinctly British psychedelia informed by live theater.
  
  A cover of “A Little Piece of My Heart” is a nod to their R&B roots, but the original popcraft keeps coming, with the shimmering psych-pop of “Gold Leaf Tree” and the bittersweet “Mr. Claire,” two pieces of essential and exquisite post Beatles -Sgt.Pepper cleverness. The trippy “Circus,” which turns that time-honored entertainment form into a psychedelic mini-opera, continues in Sgt Pepper grooviness; fascinating yet ultimately a failure, if only compared to the HIGH'S reached by much of this album.
  If you’ve never heard the Koobas before, get ready for your second favorite Liverpool band of the ‘60s—it might be a closer call as you think -twice
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1.                  CONDITION:
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1. The vinyl: Rated: M-  TOP COPY ... CLEAR all the way, both
   
2. side 1 + side 2  = AND both UK Carnaby labels are clean ...

1. • ~ The KOOBAS ~
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   • The KOOBAS