GALACTIC ZOO DOSSIER

Having found instant fame with the ahead-of-its-time single "Fire", Arthur Brown's "crazy world" disintegrated in the late 1960's. Vincent Crane went on to form Atomic Rooster, taking with him Carl Palmer who found a measure of subsequent success with another rock combo.

Brown wandered aimlessly for a while, then burst back onto the rock scene with the formation of his new band Kingdom Come. "Galactic zoo dossier" was the first album by that band. Brown by no means abandons the wildness and demented imagery of his Crazy World, choosing instead to develop it further, with even more off the wall compositions.

Always driven on by strong organ and guitar work, Brown offers the diverse humoresque of Frank Zappa, while thankfully avoiding the excessive jazz indulgences of Mr. Z. Indeed, comparisons with the music of Hawkwind can often be appropriate here. The distinctive crying vocals are still here of course, and are used on tracks such as "Galactic zoo" to create a troubling undercurrent. Brown does in fact have a strong theatrical voice, which when used for more melodic songs ("Space plucks" or "Simple man" for example) demonstrates that he could have had a career as a straight male vocal singer.

Here though, the emphasis is on the wacky, the weird and the downright outrageous. This is not really prog as such. Some of the tracks may be of a reasonable length, but any instrumentation is generally used for overall effect. Exceptions do occur though, such as the fine guitar break on "Sunrise". The occasional use of monophonic synthesiser adds some spacey sounds which at the time would have been very futuristic.

The highlight of the album is the 8 minute "Gypsy escape", where the organ builds to a wonderfully majestic crescendo.

Overall, a highly adventurous album which will appeal to those who wish to find diversity and weirdness while listening to their music. If we strip away all the trimmings, the compositions are not particularly interesting as stand alone pieces, but as a whole, this is an enjoyable experience.

The expanded version of the album includes three additional tracks, but these are simply alternative mixes of tracks on the album.

Share this ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to Easy Livin
• Report this review (#161002)
• Buy ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME music online with PA partners
• Show all ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME MP3/Stream
• Go to ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Galactic Zoo Dossier page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ARTHUR BROWN'S KINGDOM COME related discussions