Dialogue “Dialogue” 1972 US Private dreamy Psych Pop
Dialogue is an extremely obscure Philadelphia duo who issued an impressive self-titled private pressing in 1972. Two subsequent pressings were reissued in 1974, then the duo virtually fell off the map. What they managed to leave behind is a highly evolved and sophisticated collection of songs that recall everything from 60’s psychedelic to 70’s power pop. To be accurate, however, these songs were slightly left of center with a skewed sense of melody and angular harmonies. The result is a challenging album filled with sublime hooks that seep through over repeated listenings. While it is true that copies of the album are literally impossible to locate, this vinyl rip does more than enough to illustrate the essence of Dialogue. Please pardon the lower bitrate, but at this time I have nothing better. I did do some cleaning up and slight mastering myself to insure the best possible listening experience. Download and be challenged. Dialogue may not be ear candy, but it’s certainly not throwaway pabulum…………
Originally released 1972 in the US as a private press on Cold Studio Records DM-68425. Totally rare and great psych album from Philadelphia. Fantastic songwriting with a strong beatlesesque feeling. Superb album.
One of those obscurities that’s rather difficult to track down; let alone adequately describe. Interestingly we’ve seen various reviews that label the LP everything from “psychedelic masterpiece” to comparing it to The Beatles and Badfinger.
Kurt Shore and Jim Stanton were apparently from the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. As Dialogue the pair recorded their 1972 debut “Dialogue” in Birmingham, Alabama’s New London Studios. Co-produced by Rick Matos and the duo, the album featured a surprisingly commercial and polished set of pop ballads. Written by Shore, (Stanton arranging), tracks such as “Think Father Think”, “Aslon the Lion” and “It Scares Me So” are largely keyboard-propelled ballads. Full of pretty melodies and gorgeous harmony work (the one notable exception being the cloying “Sandbox”), the overall effect is more “sunshine pop” than psych. That does nothing to diminish the album’s appeal to our ears. The short back story on the different cover versions is that after the initial small press run (reportedly only 200 copies), they realised that they failed to provide anyone with information about how or where to obtain additional copies of the record. So when they decided to reissue it a couple of years later, they added a mailing address to the back. This second cover version had a completely different rear than the original. First press in orange sleeve.
There are apparently at least three versions of the LP; the 1972 original that doesn’t mentioned Cold Studio, and a pair of 1974 pressings, one with an address on the back, the other without and insert. There’s supposedly a non-LP 45, but we’ve never seen details on it. ……
