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Brainticket - Adventure CD (album) cover

ADVENTURE

Brainticket

Krautrock


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loserboy
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars "Adventure" is a heavy cosmic voyage into the epicenter of your mind. As most of you know by now BRAINTICKET were and are still one of my personal fav's from the Krautrock - Space genre and for good reason. BRAINTICKET's music sustains real "head-music" aspects without any repetitive electronica to guide us..instead flutes, clavinets and synths combine to create huge sonic landscapes for your mind to wonder. On "Adventure" the psychedelia found on their earlier recordings is replaced with heavy electronic and synthesizer shrines and monuments. One of the most attractive aspects to this music is actually in the lovely percussion and deep analog synths used throughout. As always BRAINTICKET use a large number of different electronic sounds for texture creation and sound effects.designed to totally freak you out. Originally this album contained two side long songs and the fine folk at Cleopatra have kindly added 3 lovely bonus tracks to. An enormous album which needs to adorn all good electronic music collections. Essential music!

Report this review (#23810)
Posted Friday, March 12, 2004 | Review Permalink
Proghead
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Late period BRAINTICKET really confuses the hell out of me, because these recordings sure sounds like they were made a few years earlier than their actual year of release, for example, 1982's "Voyage" sounds like it was recorded in 1976. This one, "Adventure", recorded from May 1979 to January 1980 sounds like it was recorded at that time, as it doesn't quite sound as inspired as "Voyage". It's more abstract and experimental, and less accessible, but like "Voyage", contains the same lineup (three keyboardists and one percussionist) and two side-length cuts divided by Part 1 and 2. Lots of gamelan percussion dominate this too, as well as clavinet and electric piano, but without so much the jazzy influence.

I have also heard rumors that when Purple Pyramid reissued these two albums on CD, they accidentally switched the albums around so that "Adventure" is really "Voyage" and vice versa (I need to get the original LPs to see if that is true), if that's the case, that explains why "Voyage" sounds like it came before "Adventure", even though it came after. And if "Voyage" really is "Adventure", then I'm shocked to find music recorded in '79-'80 sounds much more like it was recorded in '76. Regardless, whatever the content, I'll just go by the Purple Pyramid CD reissue and say that I prefer "Voyage" over "Adventure". And also both contain bonus cuts too, where they came from, I can't say (even one of the songs have the "Analog 1970" tag to it, even though it hardly sounds like a 1970 recording, but perhaps a 1981 recording). "Adventure" is a pretty unique album, just like its companion "Voyage", and I think these are pretty underrated.

Report this review (#23811)
Posted Wednesday, December 8, 2004 | Review Permalink
philippe
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars After their magical "Celestial Ocean" which culminates the space rock genre, Brainticket split up during a moment to finally be reformed at the beginning of the 80's under the direction of the frontman Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Always with Barney Palm on percussions but with the help of two new members, the band recorded "Adventure". If you want to get in touch with this album don't have the hope to listen to an other "Cottonwoodhill" or "Psychonaut". The band deliberately taken an other direction, far from the "acid" / jazzy blues rock of their debut. The acoustic "exotic" touch is abundant with the obvious presence of Joel on the floating flute parts and the use of Balinese Gamelan mixed with electronic structures. The music put the stress on long, pre-ambient compositions dominated by electronics, synth and the piano. An interesting exploration throw meditative "ethnic" electronic music with original synthesised sounds.
Report this review (#43636)
Posted Sunday, August 21, 2005 | Review Permalink
Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Feeling a bit like a dry run for the rather more rich and substantial Voyage, Brainticket's Adventure finds the band reconvening after some time apart for one more jam session. With an acoustic, minimalistic approach, it's a far cry from the hyperactive tripped-out psychedelic madness of Cottonwoodhill, and whilst the world music influences are just enough to stop it getting downright boring, they aren't quite enough to make it interesting. The thing is, the likes of Popol Vuh had already covered this territory years before and already moved on and developed it further than Brainticket do here, so the album sounds dated - indeed, it'd have sound kind of unoriginal and ho-hum even if it had come out five years earlier.
Report this review (#1073965)
Posted Thursday, November 7, 2013 | Review Permalink
Progfan97402
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars Public service announcement: If you own the CD reissue of Adventure on Purple Pyramid, you're actually hearing Voyage, and that same applies to the CD of Voyage, you're actually hearing Adventure. So the review here goes to the actual album Adventure. I bought the CD of Voyage (or so I thought) in 1997, not too long after it came out, and I was certain it came out in 1976, it really had that cool mid '70s vibe going on. No year of release was included anywhere, except 1997 when the CD came out. Then I bought Adventure on CD in early 1998, and it did clearly state it was recorded between May 1979 and January 1980, so I thought Adventure came after Voyage. Wrong! Adventure came first, in 1980, Voyage next, in 1982, but the reason I thought Voyage was first was I didn't realize the mistake that those albums were accidentally switched. So in this review, pretend I'm reviewing the CD to Voyage (since those bonus cuts left me speechless). Years later I was able to acquire the original LPs of Adventure and Voyage, which totally confirmed the rumors I heard about those CDs.

After Celestial Ocean, it was pretty clear Brainticket seemed to have vanished. Joel Vandroogenbroeck put out a solo album in 1978 called Images of Flute In Nature, but in 1979, he resurrected Brainticket with Barney Palm (from the previous two Brainticket albums, Celestial Ocean and Psychonaut) with two German musicians, Hans Deyssenroth and Wilhelm Seefeldt. I really don't understand why this phase in Brainticket's career is frequently maligned. To me, I simply felt they were going the progressive electronic route, and I really feel fans of progressive electronic will get more out of it than the Krautrock wanting a Cottonwoodhill or Celestial Ocean. The album starts off with this weird electronic circus sounding stuff, then it suddenly cuts off, then there's a bunch of gamelan and strange percussion, plus the sound of some wooden rasp and a wind up toy (presumably teeth on feet), electric piano, clavinet and Moog kicks in. Here it has that very mid '70s feel (hard to believe it was recorded in 1979 and 1980!), almost like RInder & Lewis' incidental music to In Search Of... (although warning: Rinder & Lewis were associated with disco, although the incidental music on In Search Of... was clearly progressive electronic). There's amore tripped out part next, with that strange circus music appearing again. Then side two (if you own the LP, that is) starts off rather slow with strange use of noise synth filters, clavinet and electric piano, before the flute kicks in, and a great Moog solo starts, before that ends with some bizarre use of flute, and a more tripped out calm part, with electric piano, clavinet, and Moog. I really think this album is truly underappreciated, in fact it left me spellbound. When I discovered that what I was hearing was Adventure, not Voyage (because of the CD), I was more blown away this dated from 1980, not 1976. Joel Vandroogenbroeck seemed a bit resistent in going along with the times (given Joel Vandroogenbroeck was already over 40 in 1980, you can't imagine him being fond of Elvis Costello or any other new wave act of the time). At a time when "Turning Japanese" by the Vapours and the Clash's London Calling (it was released at the end of 1979, but it's more of a 1980 album) were the big thing in 1980, Brainticket releases an album that's far more in tuned with mid '70s aesthetics, even the vibe sounded so 1976 that I couldn't believe it was actually recorded between May 1979 and January 1980).

Now the CD (that is, Voyage) includes three bonus cuts. I really wished I knew where they came from. I know that throughout the 1980s and even into the 1990s, Joel Vandroogenbroeck had released a ton of library music albums on the Coloursound label. Of course, those albums weren't available to the general public, and it wasn't until the coming of the Internet that people even became aware of these albums. But it appears that these bonus cuts did not appear on any of theses albums. "Skyline (Analog 1970)" was not recorded in 1970, but sounds more in tune with Adventure (or Voyage, if you have the CD). It even sounds like the same lineup. I really like how it starts with this droning synths, the flute and clavinets kick in, before the string synths and percussion kick in, before calming back down, to the droning synth that started it. This really left me spellbound, I only wished this was available at the time it was recorded. "Underworld Paths" sounds more contemporary, like mid to late '80s, perhaps early '90s, this is one I can't totally tell when it was recorded, it could be anywhere between 1985 and 1992. By this point it's obvious Joel Vandroogenbroeck didn't have any trouble with adapting to the digital technology of the time (compared to Adventure and Voyage which were very stuck in the '70s despite their early '80s origins). There's some Native American influence, with ambient synth and slap bass. It clearly sounds like a Joel Vandroogenbroeck solo piece. "Nebula" also sounds like from the same time period but hard telling, this one's much more ambient and minimalist.

For years I had been confused by this era of Brainticket, but after buying the original LPs, the confusion is totally cleared. Really I feel this era of Brainticket is underrated and worth checking out!

Report this review (#1644914)
Posted Saturday, November 19, 2016 | Review Permalink

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