Kensington Market - Aardvark CD (Mega Blowout Sale)
SKU
18-Pace 054
“A late night jam with the Lovin' Spoonful's Zal Yanofsky in 1967 would prove to be the big break for Toronto's Kensington Market.
As Nicholas Jennings tells it in Before the Gold Rush, his excellent chronicle of that city's Yorkville scene, "Knocked out by the band's sophisticated sound, Yanofsky went down to New York where he raved about them to Felix Pappalardi, already one of the hottest new record producers with the Youngbloods and Cream to his credit. Pappalardi flew up to Toronto in October to check them out. Before he left the band's rehearsal space that night, Pappalardi had signed the band to a two-record deal.
In 1969, Kensington Market released their final LP, “Aardvark.” This album is a weird and wonderful mini-masterpiece upon which much of Kensington Market’s reputation rests. This time out there were no silly jug-band tracks and many of the album’s ideas are fully formed and well thought out. Some of the songs, like the beautiful, trippy ‘Cartoon’ and the ahead-of-it’s-time ‘Help,’ use primitive synthesizer in all the right ways. ‘Help’ sounds like a lost Flaming Lips track with its open arrangement and blissed-out guitar playing. Other tracks like ‘Think About The Times’ and ‘If It Is Love’ have more of a melancholy air but are equally excellent and reveal a more pessimistic side of the band.
Felix Pappalardi of Mountain fame is credited with "musical direction" as well as production this time around, and it shows in the heaviness, and the wistful, surreal weirdness of most of the tracks (similar in flavor to Cream's “Wheels Of Fire” and the Mountain albums), even contributing a short piano piece called ‘Ciao.’”
- LabelPacemaker
- UPC778578005429