VOYAGE

Brainticket's Voyage, like Adventure before it, sounds like an extended jam session edited to album length, and it probably is one - Krautrock being a scene fond of such albums. This approach had fallen out of favour by the 1980s, but as far as releases in the format go this one is actually pretty good, Brainticket managing to evoke a range of moods from spacey synth-dominated sections to disorienting percussive workouts with natural transitions from one to the next and the album never bogging down in aimless noodling. Not quite as confrontational and far out as Cottonwoodhill, it's a more contemplative listen which teases out another side of the group. I like it somewhat better than Adventure, the other album they released in the 1980s in the same vein, though ultimately neither album is as groundbreaking or as fascinating as their major 1970s works.