GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER

If you know of Arthur BROWN, you already know THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN and his 1968 hit "Fire". But what a lot of people don't know was that his career didn't begin and end with "Fire" and THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN album. After a couple of abortive followup recordings (that surfaced years laters, as "Strangelands" and "Kingdom Come" & "Jam"), Arthur BROWN put together "KINDOM COME (not to be confused with the '80s metal band), a much more adventurous band). "Galactic Zoo Dossier", from 1971, is BROWN's first official album with KINGDOM COME, with him on vocals, Julian Paul Brown on VCS-3 synth, Desmond Fisher on bass, Michael "Goodge" Harris on organ, Andy Dalby on guitar, and the occasional additional vocals, and Martin "Slim" Steer on drums. Anyway, you hadn't heard anything until you hear this!

The music is more aggressive than THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN, plenty of wild guitar work, killer organ, and of course, Arthur's voice. The opening cut, "Internal Messenger" features a bunch of babbling about sinning before the song kicks in. This sounds like THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN with guitars. The next song is the mellower "Space Plucks". The album is often segued in with some really twisted, experimental pieces like "Metal Monster" and "Night of the Pigs". I own the original LP, and while there is nothing wrong with the LP other than the usual wear and tear, "Metal Monster" features intentional sounds of skipping, that sounds a lot like a CD skipping (even though CDs were not going to be available for another 12 year), so no, it's not a defect. Another favorite of mine is "Simple Man", another one of the more mellow pieces with some bizarre synth from Julian Paul Brown.

Side two opens up with a song written and sung by Andy Dalby, called "Trouble". It's largely an acoustic piece with lyrics a lot more hippie-oriented than what Arthur BROWN came up with. The album really gets off the deep end with "Creep" and "Creation" as Arthur BROWN simply spouts poetry (resembling Robert Calvert's poetry off HAWKWIND's "Space Ritual") against a relentless backdrop of noise. After Arthur stop screaming, while the "music" speeds up, then it segues in to "Gypsy Escape", an instrumental number that sounds a bit like ELP. The last song, "No Time" is more or less "back to normal" (at least as normal as this album gets) with a recurring theme to "Internal Messenger". Regardless, a totally mindblowing album that shouldn't be overlooked.