Released in April 2000, Kaleidoscope marked a new era for the DJ Food alias first conceived by label founders Coldcut. Now under the expert control of fellow Ninjas Kevin Foakes, aka Strictly Kev, and Patrick Carpenter, aka PC, the album broke with the past by reflecting a possible future of beats and pieces. Twenty years later, amid the first national lockdown in England, Kev and PC decided to celebrate Kaleidoscope's 20th anniversary by digging through their personal archives for material from the original recording sessions. They found more than they bargained for, compiling versions, alternate mixes, and unreleased ideas into a series of mixes that have now been further refined into the Kaleidoscope Companion and presented alongside the original album on quadruple vinyl.
DJ Food cemented Ninja Tune’s foundations with a series of five ‘Jazz Brakes’ albums in the first half of the 90’s. So called because they were making ‘Food for DJs’, the albums started as tools to scratch and mix with but progressively became more complex with each volume due to the addition of Patrick Carpenter aka PC. Joined by Kevin Foakes aka Strictly Kev, for the sixth album, 1995’s ‘A Recipe For Disaster’, the latter duo paired up to become ‘the face’ of DJ Food.
With ‘Kaleidoscope’ turning 20 on April 3rd 2020 and a national lockdown meaning they had time on their hands, PC and Kev unearthed hours of unreleased material made 20 years previously.As Kev puts it, "It’s not a new DJ Food album, it’s an old one that never was. In an alternate reality it might have become Kaleidoscope but now, 20 years on, it’s a companion to the original album.”
| Kaleidoscope |
| A1 | Full Bleed |
| A2 | Cookin' |
| A3 | Break |
| A4 | The Riff |
| B1 | The Ageing Young Rebel (Featuring Ken Nordine) |
| B2 | The Crow... |
| C1 | Nocturne (Sleep Dyad 1) |
| C2 | Nevermore (Sleep Dyad 2) |
| D1 | The Sky At Night |
| D2 | ...You |
| D3 | Minitoka |
| Companion |
| E1 | The Ents Go To War |
| E2 | Prototype I & II |
| E3 | The Crow (Slow) |
| F1 | A Strange Walk |
| F2 | Hip Operation |
| F3 | Skylark |
| F4 | Zoom Zoom |
| G1 | Quadraplex (A Trip To The Calactic Centre) |
| G2 | See Saw |
| H1 | Stealth |
| H2 | The Rook + Type 3 |
| H3 | Boohoo |
