Brainticket: Brainticket-Cottonwoodhill 1971 + Psychonaut 1972

Obscure Krautrock band born out of a 60's jazz group featuring Belgian born keyboardist Joel Vandroogenbroeck, based in Switzerland. They are considered by many to be pioneers of early

European psychedelic and spaced-out cosmic music. Brainticket is the brainchild of Joel
Vandroogenbroeck, a Belgian based in Switzerland who grew up studying classical piano before switching to jazz. He received the Art Tatum prize as “youngest jazz pianist” at the tender age of fifteen, and was soon touring around Europe and Africa. By 1967, Joel was still playing jazz but he found new inspiration in the sounds emanating from German krautrock artists Amon Duul II, Can and Tangerine Dream.
                      

Under the influence of these groups, Joel and guitarist Ron Byer recruited drummer Wolfgang Paap and

formed the trio that would become Brainticket. The group’s 1971 debut album Cottonwoodhill immediately ran into a storm of controversy for its association with psychedelic drugs. The album came with a warning label that insisted you should “only listen once a day to this record. Your brain might be destroyed,” which led to the album being banned in several countries including the USA.
                   

From then on, Brainticket’s reputation as a band of experimentalists at the forefront of underground, avant-garde music had been solidified. Following the death of Bryer, Joel began exploring electronic sounds, moved to Italy and met an American woman named Carole Muriel. A pair of Swiss musicians,

guitarist Rolf Hug and bassist Martin Sacher, followed and the group released 1972’s Psychonaut. A rock opera collaboration with Academy Award winning film composer Bill Conti (“Rocky”) followed before Joel began work on a new Brainticket album based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The new album, Celestial Ocean, told the after-life experience of Egyptian kings traveling through space and time, from the desert land to the pyramids. Released in 1973, the album was hailed as the definitive Brainticket experience and earned the band their greatest acclaim.
                

Joel has continued to explore new creative avenues over the decades, releasing two more albums under the Brainticket moniker, including 2000’s Alchemic Universe. Recently, he teamed with Cleopatra

Records to release the first ever Brainticket box set, The Vintage Anthology 1971-1980, a 4-disc compilation containing the complete first three albums along with several rare recordings. The box set is a celebration of Brainticket’s enormous contributions to electronic and ambient music that would provide inspiration for progressive bands from Emerson Lake & Palmer to Yes as well as modern acts such as Radiohead.
                         

The first album, Cottonwoodhill, opens with Black Sand, a heavy driving slab of Prog-Psych. Places of

Light is a combination of cool grooving psychedelic-jazz and heavy rock, with beautiful flute leads by Joel, heavy rocking organ, and trippy narration by Dawn Muir. The remainder of the album consists of Brainticket Pt. 1, Pt. 1 Conclusion, and Pt. 2, which together form 25 minutes of rocking improvisational Kosmiche music, freaky alien effects, and intense narrative vocals, all built around a memorable repetitive riff.

LINE - UP

Ron Bryer – guitar
Werner Frohlich – bass, bass guitar
Hellmuth Kolbe – keyboards, sound effects
Cosimo Lampis – drums
Dawn Muir – vocals
Wolfgang Paap – percussion, tabla
Joel Vandroogenbroeck – organ, flute, keyboards, vocals
Hellmuth Kolbe – producer, engineer, electronics, supervisor, generator
                            

By the time of the second album, Psychonaut, Joel had assembled an almost entirely new Brainticket lineup that explored new realms. The album includes some strong heavy prog-psych songs. Radagacuca has a trippy tribal quality and explores various jazz, rock and ethnic territory. One Morning is a light

piano and percussion led song. Watchin' You is a powerhouse rocker with a riff and vibe that remind me a lot of Amon Duul II's Deutsch Nepal. Near the end it shifts gears completely and goes into an Indian influenced raga with the multi-instrumental Joel jamming away on sitar. Like A Place In The Sun is a dark and chunky prog-psych song. Feel The Wind Blow is another of the lighter tunes and has a bit of a flower power feel. And Coc 'o Mary is yet another intense heavy prog tune with great organ, flute and tribal percussion.  
                   

Psychonaut is more relaxed and has far less electronic elements than either Brainticket's first record, Cottonwoodhill, or the album that followed, Celestial Ocean. Though the record is more

straightforward and song-oriented, it still has progressive and experimental elements that keep it from sounding too much like anything else. If anything, the group is not quite focused on any one style on this record, throwing in everything from the ethnic-influenced folk of "Radagacuca" and "One Morning" to the more traditional strummy folk of "Feel the Wind Blow" to the percussion-heavy avant-funk instrumental "Cocò Mary" to the quirky rock assaults of "Watchin' You" and "Like a Place in the Sun."
                            

                   
"Like a Place in the Sun" is particularly effective, with dark spoken word vocals alternating in contrast

with the sung chorus of its title. Effects and electronics are used much more subtly (especially compared to the earlier record), but are still quite evident. Psychonaut may not be as cohesive as the other early Brainticket albums, but it is also not as chaotic either, and as such may be the group's most accessible record without sacrificing originality.

LINE - UP

Jane Free - Lead Vocals, Thibat, Tambourine, Slide Whistle, Sounds.
Joel Vandroogenbroeck - Organ, Piano, Flute, Sitar, Sanze Vocal, Rumors, Generator, Arragements.
Rolf Hug - Lead Guitar, Acustic Guitar, Tablas, Vocals.
Martin Sacher - Electric Bass, Flute.
Carole Muriel - Speaking on "Like A Place In The Sun" and ooohh...ooohh... on "Feel The Wind Blow"
Peter - Witch Doctoran Good Vibes.
                           

Brainticket – Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill + Psychonaut
Label: Red Fox Records – RF 618
Format: CD, Compilation, Unofficial Release
Country: France
Released: 2002
Genre: Electronic, Rock
Style: Krautrock, Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

                

BRAINTICKET - COTTONWOODHILL       

                     

  

01. Black Sand    4:03
02. Places Of Light    4:02
03. Brainticket (Part One)    8:18
04. Brainticket (Part One Conclusion)    4:35
05. Brainticket (Part Two)    13:12

PSYCHONAUT           

                

06. Radagacuca    7:24
07. One Morning    3:51
08. Watchin' You    5:15
09. Like A Place In The Sun    6:28
10. Feel The Wind Blow    3:32
11. Coc' O Mary    6:08

MP3 @ 320 Size: 161 MB
Flac  Size: 408 MB