Kennélmus: Ken Walker looks back on the 1971 cult psych album Folkstone Prism

It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine published a wide-ranging interview with Ken Walker on 24 September, revisiting Kennélmus's 1971 private-press cult classic Folkstone Prism. Walker, now approaching 79, recounts how the Phoenix-based band — himself, guitarist Bob Narloch, bassist Tom Gilmore and drummer Mike Shipp — recorded the album on evenings and weekends while working at the Wakefield Pressing Plant, where they pressed the LP themselves. "We were the only band that I can think of that actually pressed our own album," he says.
The nine-track LP blends garage psych, surf-instrumental oddities and Lee Hazlewood-style vocal parody, with accidental tape bleed from nearby telephone equipment captured on "The Raven". Originally released on the band's own Phoenix International Records in a run of 1,000 copies, it has been reissued by Rockadelic, Sundazed and Modern Harmonic; "Patti's Dream" surfaced in the 2024 film Drive-Away Dolls. Walker also recalls the early Phoenix scene, crossing paths with the Spiders (later Alice Cooper) and Duane Eddy at Ziggie's Music Store.
A full-album stream is available on YouTube. Folkstone Prism remains a touchstone for US private-press psych collectors.



