BRAINTICKET

Well, I don't listen krautrock so much like other prog, but this album ... it can't be so bad at all. When I heard good rhythm and flute (which sounds like it's flying away to another world) in 'Radagacuca' , I was decided for writing review after long time of keeping silence. I am still listening, still thinking about it, still keeping every tone in my ears ...

'One Morning' is quite shorter, but more unified than first track. Here's nice piano, it really strokes my soul. Once upon a time I played the piano ...

'Watchin' You' has simple and short, but good guitar solo, I enjoyed it. Vocals are quite mad, I don't like an idea they're watching me in some dangerous, dark street.

'Like a Place in the Sun' ... this is reason, that's why I don't wanna give 5*... it's not bad, but there's sometimes more speaking than singing, this song is quite annoying for me.

'Feel the Wind Blow' , it really reminds me a wind. Slow, dreamy music ... that's my way, go on, go on ...

'Coc'o Mary' ... it's not about me (heh, really not), but it sounds like me, like my opinions, my nature ... here's hypnotic drums ... and crazy flute, again. I know, Ian Anderson plays it better, but this sounds good, too. And unidentified instrument for me, like a xylophone, probably it was synth. Never mind, my hearing is failing.

Songs are sometimes full of unexpected twists. From silence to simply noise and back. That's not my cup of tea, but I feel good. Psychedelic shadow is more than evident.

Good 4*, I advise it for long nights, when you can't sleep and counting sheep is boring for you.

Maybe first album in Krautrock genre I've ever heard. And so I wonder, was this wise choice ? After first listen, I wanted to give this just three stars. But "Jardins" was too strong to stand still. Such a potential in it. But short "Rainbow" was so annoying, "Era of Technology" so gray that I wasn't able to see something. Some people are colour-blind, maybe I'm psychedelic/kraut blind. But I don't believe it, because I could appreciate some of these albums in past.

I'm just not so keen on it, not in ecstasy from every cosmic sound I can hear here. So after good first two tracks came these "noises" (for me, not necessarily for you) which ends for a while with other half of "The Space Between" but only to return to some strange mumbling which could be heard in previous track. "Cosmic Winds" is again up on this strange sinusoid. Pleasant track to listen with these krautrock influences I like. OK, I lied a little bit, this is not my first Kraut album. At least it don't follow usual pattern, for example last track, "Vision" is very unique and as epilogue to story I didn't get is great.

So, follow the crowd and give 4 stars, or have my own mind and rate it 3. I have better idea - giving it 3.51, so it can fell to four star category. Because I really don't know how to move it from this average, 3-4 place. But there is this story which can be good (as soon as I'll understand it), so better mark is here. Enjoy it as well proggers.

Brainticket have almost completely abandoned the rock orientation that they presented in songs such as "Waching You", "Places of Light", "Black Sand", "Like a Place in the Sun" and "Coco Mary", with the single exception being the track "Egyptian Kings". Their sound on this album is less striking, less groovy and less immediate and more more spacey and trance-inducing, more electronic and more acoustically eclectic. Beginning with the song "Egyptian Kings", the album seems to embark on a journey, or trip ;) that it never comes back from. In the rest of the album, we are drawn in to a sonic world filled with minimalist weird psychedelic We have 3 flowing acoustic and meditative tracks with acoustic guitar and either zither, sounding a lot like harp ("Jardins" and "Cosmic Winds") or sitar ("Rainbow"), 3 trippy electronic grooves with percussion (toms, timbales and occasional wood blocks) ("Era of Technology", "To Another Universe", and "The Space Between"). Then we have "Egyptian Kings", which is a multilayered electronic rock groove with drums and echoing flute and vocals, and finally "Visions", which is a beautiful and well played (as always with the virtuoso Joel Vandroogenbroeck) piano solo piece that goes into a Latin-sounding groove with woodblock in 5/8, followed by a reprise of the melody from "To Another Universe" with keyboard soloing over it and with it at the end and finally some of the lyrics from "Egyptian Kings". The keyboards and other instruments and electronics/sound-effects appearing on the majority of this album are very experimental and creative in creating musical textures. Like their last album "'Psychonaut'", "Celestial Ocean" contains some short songs at the end of tracks, as well as a few trippy interludes, albeit to a slightly lesser extent. Whereas 'Psychonaut' contained about 17 distinct sound segments (not counting verse and chorus parts or solos over the music) ranging from 15 seconds to 6 minutes over a total of 32 minutes, ''Celestian Ocean'' has about 15 over a total of 37 minutesThis album benefits from being 5 minutes longer than its predecessor (which was good enough to forgive its mediocre 32 minutes but could have definitely used a couple more songs) and three than their first (which desperately needed a couple more short songs to balance the first two short songs with the 26-minute "Brainticket"). This is an album I can get lost into and really should be experienced as a whole, as the whole is greatly superior to the sum of its parts.

This album took me longer to get into than Psychonaut or Cottonwoodhill but has grown on me a great deal since then and i hold it below their masterpiece Psychonaut and slightly above Cottonwoodhill.

Recommended to those liking krautrock, psychedelic, electronic, and ethnic acoustic musical textures and/or bands such as Dom, Brave New World, Agitation Free, Popol Vuh, Kalacakra, Dzyan, Popol Vuh, Amon Düül II, Can, Ashra, Ash Ra Tempel, Tangerine Dream, Yatha Sidhra and Bröselmaschine.

4.5 stars!

What a fantastic album! Of the three early Brainticket this is my favorite. Take the first 2 tracks from 'Cottonwoodhill', "Black Sand" and "Places of Light", add a more mature, mellow, ethnic and stoned sound and more diversity, and you have some idea of the feel of 'Psychonaut' (alternately, if you have heard 'Celestial Ocean', the majority of this album sounds most like the track "Egyptian Kings"). While not usually getting to the forcefulness of the former two pieces, the songs on 'Psychonaut' show a flowing range of diversity that makes the album very pleasant to listen to. Whereas 'Cottonwoodhill' was a more acid rock oriented album, this is more stoned-out (though they both have each quality) and one of my absolute favorites to listen to under that influence. I can't pick any standout tracks because every song is excellent ("Radagacuca" might be my slight favorite). The quality of this album forgives the fact that the thing's a mere 32 minutes long.

Recommended to those liking krautrock, psychedelic, electronic, and ethnic acoustic musical textures and bands such as Agitation Free, Popol Vuh, Dom, Amon Düül II, Can, Brave New World, Kalacakra, Ashra, Ash Ra Tempel, Dzyan, Yatha Sidhra and Bröselmaschine.

5 stars!

Pulsing psychedelic organ runs and acid-dripping riffs, thick grooves and drums that fit the grooves just right, heavy acid drenched guitar riffs and solos (Similar to Can in sound but more driving, and there's some funk influence in there too!), flute (in Places of light), trippy lyrics sung by a woman with a great psychedelic voice who goes though many moods being very poetic and clever at other times (over the course of the song "Brainticket") freaking out about "the source" and ranting/droning/rambling about various other things, really trippy hallucinatory sound effects and soundbytes, this is the sound of Brainticket's first album. The first two tracks are killer! The following three-part "Brainticket" is a fair bit less musically interesting not to mention that it engages a riff that, throughout the 26 minutes of its duration, does not change much in basic nature but is simply elaborated on by an array of weird sound effects and recordings, a lot of freaked out psychedelic spoken word and plain psychedelic utterances, laughter etc. sung/spoken by the crazy, diverse and emotive voice of their female vocalist, Dawn Muir. "Brainticket" launches off with the sound of glass breaking, footsteps, a car door open and close, a "chikit-voooomuuumuuuuuuum and a psychedelically modulated siren that almost fades into the distorted and subtly changing electric organ riff. Many cool things happening across this track. This album also contains some very great clever, psychedelic, intellectually stimulating and emotionally/situationally evocative poetry.

While the music on this album is very good (especially on the first two tracks) and I personally enjoy it greatly, two things bring my rating down to 4.5/5. First, the album is merely 34 minutes. Second is the lack of much instrumental interest over the course of the 26-minute "Brainticket", as well as its selective listenability and ability to get slightly tedious (if one is not in the right mind state). With another two songs of "Black Sand"/"Places of Light" quality, however, this album would surely gain a fifth star from me.

Very radical sound.

If you like psychedelic music and or krautrock (and definitely too if you like psychedelics), you will most likely greatly enjoy this album.

This was the very first Krautrock record I ever heard and also one of my favourites. After this I couldn't get enough of the stuff. A lot of Krautrock is rather hit and miss, especially in the late seventies and I think Brainticket went the same way. Cottonwoodhill must have been mindblowing stuff in 1971. It's very unusual and not like other music from that time. Nurse With Wound liked this one so much that in 1984 they ripped off an entire side of the record with a song called Brained by Falling Masonry which is basically the same track as Brainticket parts 1&2 on this record, with Clint Ruin of Foetus adding some great vocals. Certainly the wackiest of all the Brainticket albums, it features a crazy, spaced out female vocalist named Dawn Muir who sounds about ready to collapse in a heap or fall flat on her face. Brilliant! There are lots of effected guitar, funky bass and freaky organ playing throughout, as well as some laid back flute. It appeals to me in all the right ways - much more than the proceeding albums which were lame in comparison, although Psychonaut and Celestial Ocean are still good in a different sounding way. You know, for a Swiss band, Dawn Muir sounds very English which is probably a good thing as that's the language she rants in on this album. Ahhh! I remember having snowball fights in the back garden in 2006 with this playing in the background. Good memories. The front cover kind of sums this record up. A lot of folk might find it a bit too weird. Oh, and it's great for cycling to as well, as it's all quite upbeat. I was going to give this 4 stars but I'm playing it just now and have decided it's a 5 star. Great stuff.

Brainticket released their first classes in savage free form psych/ space rock before to engage themselves into more synthesised soundworlds. This first album is without any doubt one of the most tripped out album released during this early 70's krautrock period. It presents an astonishing collection of fuzzy-harmonised-damaged acid songs. Black Sand opens with a screaming-nervous psychedelic song with fuzzed out guitar tricks, vintage groovy organs. A mighty composition. Places of Light is a beatific-acid folk ballad dominated by ethereal dancing flutes and epic organs. Supreme stuff and totally improvised. Brainticket part 1 is a provocative, delirious association of collage sounds. Brainticket part 2 launches the listener into an eternal, obsessionaly repetitive acid (almost funky) groove. Definitely recommended before to go to their ultimate masterpiece Psychonaut. A classic of the genre.

A debut with ups and downs ...

A krautrock band from Switzerland headed by the Belgian Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Sounds interesting and makes curious. 'Cottonwoodhill' is the first album of this band from 1971 and psychedelic acid krautrocked more than anything. Just have a look at the cover art for some time. A unique remarkable element is the appearance of distorted male and female vocals during the complete album.

Compared to the title song the album starts relatively innocent but still excellent with Black Sand. Against a simple bass and drum background we have some deformed male vocals. Especially the guitar and organ contributions are the finest expressing a heavy rocking touch a little bit. The following impressive Places of Light is nearly in the same vein - mellow, with flute and some weird female recitatives. This was BRAINTICKET playing on the safe side.

The title song - divided in three parts - now appears as the ultimate acid trip - rough, unpolished. Repetitive guitar and organ chords for 26 minutes combined with sound experiments. The band must have produced lots of broken porcelain and glass for the recordings by the way. Enraptured female vocals by Dawn Muir - sometimes shrill sometimes whispering. Produced with the help of some pills I'm quite sure - and really enjoyable for the complete length only with the help of some pills too.

A cult album for sure and good enough to be recommended - but not a masterpiece. On this occasion the complete Brainticket trip is turned out too long, too exaggerative and less expressive according to my taste - 3 stars for a debut are nothing to get disappointed about and some more albums are following.

I discovered Brainticket by the strangest way, because it is normal that people hear about Brainticket and then discover Drum Circus, that is a short lived project featuring members of Brainticket, but I've known Drum Circus before Brainticket. Brainticket's debut is a hard album to get into because of the song with the same name of the band, that lasts for more than 25 minutes and it is very repetitive. Psychedelic fans will enjoy the album for sure, but even the great fans may find it boring.

The other songs are psychedelic's delight, because Black Sand and Places of Light are two superb crazy psychedelic songs, with spatial voices, great loads of hammond organ and other psychedelic elements, like flute melodies, good bass lines, drumming and guitar. Places of Light is even better than the opener.

Then comes Brainticket. The intro is very good, with noises and the beginning of a hard-psychedelic guitar and organ riff. Then starts an anarchy over the riff, with loads of special effects and electronics. Then some weird female singing, full of emotion, almost orgasmic. And sooner or later you will realize that the riff is repetitive since the beginning and it is not worse because electric organs were not so stable, generating some minor variations in the sound of the riff, which sometimes attract the attention. Some people clearly will not stand the excess of sound effects at random and the singing over the same riff, mainly because the sound effects and singing do not always fit the music, being something similar to the Spooky Tooth's infamous experience with the electronic artist Pierre Henry. These sound effects are more interesting in part II, but the listener will probably be bored.

Overall the album is good and for me that like strange psychedelic and avant-garde music, is very good, but even with a taste like mine, I admit the album could have been better if they have developed better the idea behind the 25-minute song Brainticket or shorten it to 10 minutes and add other songs, because it becomes boring sooner or later, regardless of the listener.

BRAINTICKET's third release finds the band stripped down to a trio.We get a different female vocalist for the third album in a row in Carol Muriel, who also plays synths and zither. The album starts off with my favourite BRAINTICKET track Egyptian Kings.Everytime this song came on at work this week it had my full attention.It's one of those songs you hit the repeat button for when it's over.It starts off with some intricate sounds and lots of atmosphere.A full sound arrives a minute in.Male and female vocals are spoken.Low end guitar,organ,flute and drums lead the way.It has such a groovy,addictive rhythm.The organ before 5 minutes has a Canterbury flavour to it. Jardins features zither throughout,sounding a lot like a harp actually.Female vocals are spoken.Acoustic guitar and flute add to the sound.It blends into Rainbow where we get an Indian flavour added.The sound builds after a minute.Spacey synths all by themselves after 2 minutes to end it. Era Of Technology opens with organ as we get more spoken words all speaking at once.No real melody until drums come pounding in at 1 1/2 minutes.Cool sound as spoken words continue.The song changes completely 5 minutes in for the better.Flute,zither,vocal melodies and percussion fill out the sound. To Another Universe opens with what sounds like vibes as percussion comes in.Synths and some catchy organ(later) create the sound.It blends into The Space Between as spoken words join existing melody.Words stop after 2 minutes.Synths and percussion to end it. Cosmic Wind is a very mellow and spacey song.Big surprise given the title.Zither and flute lead the way.Strummed guitar arrives 4 1/2 minutes in. Visions features some wonderful sounding piano melodies for 2 1/2 minutes.The tempo then picks up as percussion is added.Synths 4 1/2 minutes in.It ends with male and female vocals saying Egyptian kings over and over with a spacey background. This one and Psychonaut are my two favourite BRAINTICKET records.Both are great examples of what krautrock is all about.