ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME

Journey to the centre of space

Arthur Brown must be one of the most restless figures in all of music, never being able to stay in one place for very long. Here he suddenly ventures into electronic music, which was at a very experimental stage in 1973. This was a brave attempt indeed, but the end result is not very satisfying to these ears. Like on the Galactic Zoo Dossier album there are some good musical ideas here, but they are sadly again often poorly realized. The biggest mistake was probably to replace the drummer with a drum machine which creates a sterile and cold sound for most of the album's duration. Despite this both Time Captives and Spirit Of Joy are two of Arthur Brown's best remembered songs after the 60's hit Fire. In the case of the former, this status is deserved as Time Captives (sometimes known as Time Captains) is indeed a very good song. The rest of the album, however, is far behind in quality.

I admire Mr. Brown for trying out new things, but he did so before mastering his previous enterprises. The path he took with Journey was not really my cup of tea and I think that he made better albums both before and after this one.

I can only recommend this album to fans and collectors as well as to those with a special interest in Space Rock and early electronic music.

The even crazier world of Arthur Brown!

If the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown was crazy, then Arthur Brown's next musical project Kingdom Come was even crazier. Brown's distinctive vocals are still very much to the fore as are his melodic sensibilities and his peculiar taste for the outlandish, but he has left the Psychedelic late 60's behind and entered the progressive and experimental era he helped initiate. Maybe the world just wasn't crazy enough to endorse the weirdly titled Galactic Zoo Dossier the way it endorsed Crazy World and the hit massive Fire? Regardless of the reasons, Brown never again reached the same level of commercial recognition despite continuing to make music to the present day.

Without Carl Palmer and Vincent Crane - who had went on to form ELP and Atomic Rooster respectively - to back him up, Brown assembled a bunch of new musicians to form a new band that was given the name of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come. Their first effort was the present album which is basically one long piece of more or less interconnected tunes, spoken word passages and weird sound experiments. I often feel that this could have been a great album had it been a bit less fragmentary and more cohesive. There are indeed several excellent moments here and they had good musical ideas. Had these ideas only been better tied together and some passages dropped, the end result would have been all the more satisfying. Still, this is probably one of Arthur Brown's finest moments. But as it stands, it is a bit too "crazy" even for me.

Galactic Zoo Dossier is well worth having and a nice companion to the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown album, but it certainly has its flaws too.

This album deserves the hype it gets.Recorded in 1972 and released in 1973 this is a classic Space Rock album.It also has the distinction of being the first album to use a drum machine,in fact they were the first band to use one live on stage as well.This day and age the words drum machine cause prog fans to run the other way,but remember this was a new technology at the time and so it was a novelty at this point.And further more it doesn't depreciate the quality of this record one bit.Lots of mellotron here,it's all over these songs except for the first two tracks. "Time Captives" is a song HAWKWIND covered in concert,in fact Arthur Brown toured with them as part of their band. This song opens with a beat,it starts to pick up after 1 1/2 minutes.Here we go after 3 minutes as synths sweep in.Vocals before 4 1/2 minutes.I love this track.It settles around 6 1/2 minutes and eventually blends into "Triangles".This song has a beat with synths and guitar for the most part.Arthur relates how they did this track. "We took a triangle,which is simply a frame and moved it up and down the fretboard.And ended up playing only those notes that came within the space in the centre of the triangle." "Gypsy" has a good epic sound to it.The guitar comes in after a minute and it sounds awesome. Vocals before 3 minutes.A powerful soundscape 5 1/2 minutes in.Check out the mellotron before 8 1/2 minutes. "Superficial Roadblocks" is again epic thanks again to the mellotron as drums help out.Vocals after a minute.Organ follows.Guitar 5 minutes in followed by more mellotron to the end.Gulp. "Conception" is very cool with that deep bass and a beat with mellotron as the vocals almost scream. "Spirit Of Joy" is such an uplifting track for me just like the title conveys.A powerful ending as well. "Come Alive" has some excellent bass with a full sound as the vocals join in.Guitar 2 minutes in.Killer sound after 2 1/2 minutes.It settles a minute later.Kicks back in with a vengence after 4 1/2 minutes before settling one more time. Arthur said the bass player came up with the album title from one of Arthur's songs that had the line "I'm going on a journey.I'm never coming back". This is a journey into space,and one i'll be taking many times.

KINGDOM COME Kingdom Come (1972) (Esoteric 2010 Re-issue) ***

This album has all the hallmarks of an `acid' album, this is confirmed in the sleeve notes as indeed being the case. It was recorded in the rural splendour of Rockfield Studios in 1972. This is Arthur's `water' album, it is sadly not as striking as his `Fire' suite, despite a very strong opening pair of tracks, and a killer closing piece. The way this album develops in the interim is ultimately frustrating, the acid seems to have opened up the portals a little too widely to let anything and everything come flooding in, and we get an uneasy amalgam of everything from light opera, sound effects, the Goons/Monty Python and even The Nice (a direct steal at one point from `For Example' on `City Melody'). The problem is that there are so many jump cuts and fragmentary episodes lasting not much more than a minute that it is difficult to comprehend what is going on at times, and the ultimate conclusion is that this work is so `all over the place' that what music there is really suffers under the weight of too much wackiness and kitchen sink interruptions. It's almost like they wrote two new minutes of music/dialogue a day, recorded it, and stuck it all together in the order in which it was written. Maybe that's exactly what they did.

The final and best section `The Hymn' finally allows the band to stretch out over a glorious mellotron chord sequence and 8 minutes with Andy Dalby soloing at the end a real highlight of the album, and one wishes there were more extended sections like this. On the whole though, the endless splices and sound effects get a little tiresome after a while, and at times it comes across more as a musical play for radio. Had it been commissioned by the BBC it might have made more sense in that context rather than as an album, but it is infused with a unique Englishness and as a melting pot representing the collective psyches of those who dropped out it is pretty much unfettered. It is simply impossible to imagine an album like this being made in any other year, and as a snapshot of what Kevin Ayers has termed `insane times' it is the real deal.

For those who have loved this album, it should be said that the re-mastering is exemplary, and the booklet is extensive and informative featuring photographs rescued from goodness knows where. The one in the centrefold has to be seen to be believed.

KINGDOM COME Journey (1973) (Esoteric 2010 2CD Reissue) *****

This was Arthur Brown's third and final Kingdom Come album, and is entirely different in many ways from its two predecessors. It is a lot easier to digest for a start, there are regular tempos and extended codas here. For the first time is an album based around the drum machine (operated by Brown) instead of a human counterpart. The reasons for this are unclear but it would certainly mean there was more room in the tour van and it didn't drink all the beer like the real thing. Obviously these days it does sound a little quaint, but it's nowhere near as basic as it could have been, being the Bentley Rhythm Ace, a drum machine so great that a 90's band named themselves after it. Luckily the material built around it is superb, coherent and well executed and represents Brown's finest hour certainly since the debut Crazy World album.

As well as the drum machine, there are major developments on the keyboard front with those twin staples of all things cosmic the Mellotron and the VCS3 synthesizer at the forefront and there is an inevitable gravitational pull towards Hawkwind territory because of this. There is no doubt that this is out and out space rock, Arthur Brown style, and the opening suite works particularly well. `Time Captives' is a powerful and definitive opener, utilising the speed button on the Bentley drum machine to cover a range of tempos before settling down into the groove and the journey begins . The three pieces here have a fine cohesion, flowing into each other, with Mellotron and swooping synthesisers from new recruit Victor Periano, and Andy Dalby's ever present guitar providing the colours behind Brown's vocals and tempo changes. This cohesion continues into the extended `Roadblocks' and closer `Come Alive'. However the album as a whole becomes a little disjointed with the presence of the out of context `Spirit Of Joy' an ill advised attempt to write a `proper' song. Cosmic travellers do not need proper songs. On the whole this is a unique album even within the annals of the progressive genre. It would be years later before people would attempt to record using programmed drums again.

This reissue from Esoteric re-masters the audio to the highest standards and includes a bonus disc of out-takes and single sides, and includes a Peel session too, although from an off air source. Even this will have many wiping a deeply nostalgic tear, given that they have left Peel's comments intact on the recording.

After this, Brown went off to India to find himself, which he presumably did, and he's mercifully still with us.

KINGDOM COME `Galactic Zoo Dossier' (1971) *** ESOTERIC Reissue 2010

This was Arthur Brown's next recorded work after the `Crazy World' went a little too crazy and left him to form Atomic Rooster, and quite a melting pot it is. Like the old cliché `a movie for the ears', this album really does play out like a series of `scenes' rather than a collection of songs. Brown's attempt to describe the state of western society at the time, it's quite a bold construction, there's a jump-cut feel recalling the editing techniques of Frank Zappa, a figure who loomed large over the musicians of this era, and alongside the relatively conventional band line-up there is a lot of clever editing and some quite disconcerting use of vari-speed alongside splashes of then state of the art VCS3 synthesizer.

It is best regarded as two side long suites, and works well as such. It is a thoroughly entertaining album packed with lyrical and musical ideas. The staple of early 70's underground music, the Hammond organ, dominates while Andy Dalby acquits himself well on guitar and the drums are crisply recorded. After that, anything goes from the mock- religious opening to `Internal Messenger' to the full blown freak out closer `No Time'. There are time and tempo changes galore, and a momentum which carries through the whole album. It can be loosely described as `space rock', but Hawkwind this isn't, it's far too composed and theatrical for that. Imagine this on medium wave with a little static, and you could be listening to a typical John Peel show from the era it has such an archetypal yet individual sound. The actual sound quality here is superior to the previous re-issue, as is the informative and well illustrated booklet. From the photos within, we learn that Arthur Brown is one of the few rock stars (answers on a postcard please) to have sported a half- shaven/half-bearded face and seemingly walked the streets like that, and what he's doing on the cross dressed in two separate sets of clothes divided down the middle is possibly lost in the mists of time...

The music here is more suitable perhaps for stage performance, lacking as it does a truly killer stand out track, but the `everything but the kitchen sink' cornucopia of the effects of the era (phasing, panning etc) make it an entertaining listen and OK, if you will?somewhat of a movie for the ears?and surprisingly perhaps, Brown actually sounds like a psychedelic Tom Jones at times!

This album has `1971 underground' written all over it and for aficionados of that scene is pretty essential. (This edition comes with 3 alternate takes as bonus tracks)

When one listens to the long intro of "Time Captives", the psychedelia is total. It submerges the listener who is incorporated into some fabulous Floydean journey. A very nice one to tell you the truth. The style also sounds more polished, less crazy than during his first "Galactic Zoo" work with "Kingdom Come".

Still, don't panic: there are some extravaganza as well ("Triangles") but this is only a side aspect of this whole album. The use of keyboards is much more significant than on his prior releases and definitely anchors this third album in the prog sphere on its own (and not only to the disjointed and funny approach).

AB introduced some drum machine for this album (which was quite precursory). At times, it is not too enjoyable but these weaker beats aren't so many. One of the highlight is the great "Gypsy", which combines furious electric guitar and beautifully cold mellotron lines (if you like the Scandinavian scene from the nineties, I recommend this song to you).

The mini suite "Superficial Roadblocks" is rather pompous, bombastic: ELP wouldn't have dismissed it! Phantasmagoria, weird vocals, fine mellotron are the mix for this strange track.

This album is by far the most progressive of the man. The long tracks are particularly crafted and deserve your attention. Seven out of ten; rounded up to four stars.

Whatever the band in charge, the genius behind the scene is the great and totally disjointed Arthur Brown. I am old enough (unfortunately) to have seen him in his first musical incarnation with a funny "Fire" video movie from 71.

This album is quite challenging and far from any easy approach to main stream music. On the contrary, this will demand quite an open mind to be accepted. To be fully honest, I was not in contact with this album at the time of release and my review is based on some later presumptions.

Still, some forty years after its release, this album shows unbelievable creative peaks. But that's the Arthur Browne world of music. I really would have liked to see him live during his latest tour at the Spirit of 66 some months ago. Maybe next time?

The combination of psyche/rock is best reached during the excellent "City Melody". A unique combo of experimental, heavy and totally crazy adventure. Maybe just a standard for this above than average creative guy.

You can experience his creative skills and totally special approach while you'll be confronted with "Traffic Light Song". Some bands would need several albums to deliver such music, needing an orchestra or some lousy concept. Arthur is far above these matters. Such are genius, I guess. A highlight.

Now, don't get me wrong: I like the man for the souvenirs he left me in my mind and when I listen to such an album, I can only applaud. Quite a good album indeed. Not a masterpiece but some definite disjointed psychedelia.

Three stars.

The man showed already some DEEP love for the weird and crazy affairs. Being as a solo artist or as being part of a whole.

A deep psychedelia sound is sweating from this work. The combination of disjointed songs and "clever" ones is of course one of the attractions. But to be really impressed by all of these very short tracks is probably something I wouldn't be able to.

The same type of music was already available on "The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown", even if no great hit single made their appearance on this one. I guess that very few people know of this band and their input. To tell that that they are of major importance for prog rock might well be exaggerated.

You only need to judge by yourself. Great stuff as "Sunrise" shows all the power of the man. Vocals are deep, keys are classic, track is ? huge. It is really some kind of a hidden album. I wouldn't say that it is a masterpiece, but frankly as an early seventies album, it deserves quit a good listen from your part.

Not that all songs are great, but "Sunrise" is a definite highlight. Not only because it is one of the longest tracks featured, but simply because it is by far the best piece of music available. Some of the "Galactic Zoo" items are worth but could have been presented as a whole as far as I'm concerned. To have some short parts being spread out has not the most splendid effect.

Some parts are totally "unrealistic" and the type of "press next" argument is quite encouraged. "Creep" is a perfect description of this total chaos. Forget it by all means.

What's left, should you say?

Some heavy ELP stuff ("Creation + Gypsy escape") with all the pomposity of the example and to some extent it holds a great instrumental section which showed enough skills both in terms of playing and song writing. A great song for sure. THE highlight.

If ever some good heavy prog is shivering down your spine, I can only recommend you to listen to this album. Worth three stars in my rating system (seven out of ten really).

The 3rd album by Arthur Brown and his acid infused band of Merrymen showcasing their strange prog/psych tendencies to the max ! Songs dip and doodle from the bizarre to the strange in that certain Arthur Brown style. Musically these guys were something special for sure.....Just listen to the track "A Scientific Experiment featuring the lower Colonic Irrigation" (highlight of the album for me) as it offers a bit of just about everything. The album is chaulked full of surprises ...from church mass to Zappa-esque instumentation to Canterbury tales with the end results feeling something like a mild ode to Jethro Tull's "A Passion Play" masterpeice.