Brainticket - Alchemic Universe

Zero posted up those lists of last.fm Monthly Member Recommendations & I thought it would be kool to feature some of the listed artists.

Brainticket is generally classified as Krautrock, but they were actually pioneers of Kosmiche music along with the likes of Tangerine Dream & Klaus Schulze. Though the earlier (70s) Brainticket material are their classic releases, Psychonaut & Celestial Ocean remain available many other places around the Interweb. Fortunately Brainticket main-man & keyboardist Jöel Vandroogenbroeck is still making interesting musick today. I thought you might like to give Alchemic Universe a listen. It was originally released by Hologram Records in 2000. It features primarily Jöel with Carole Muriel providing the vocals & lyrics by Lance Bunda (who also produced).


The CD opens with "Life's Mirror", a great combination of mind-expanding symphonics & killer alien sounds with narration from Carole Muriel (who crops up intermittently throughout the album). "Relics 'N' Roll" seems the most reminiscent of the Prog/Kosmiche days.This album draws on Joël's past from the pioneering 70s, but is not merely a retro rehashing of past glories It's the Brainticket sound that you hope for with new life & fresh ideas.

Year of Release: 2000
Label: Hologram Records HOL 2001
Genre: Prog, Krautrock, Kosmiche

Tracklist:
Life's Mirror
Transformation of a Stream
Within Venus
Alchemic Universe
Relics 'N' Roll
The Sunspace Between
A Dreamer's Reflection
Time

Download: Brainticket - Alchemic Universe
Download Size: 135.37MB at 320Kbps

Faust and Tony Conrad - Outside the Dream Syndicate (1973)

Outside the Dream Syndicate is the only collaboration of Faust and Tony Conrad. It is considered to be Conrad's first proper recording, a three-day session recorded in 1973 at the Faust's farm in the northern German community of Wuemme.

The Dream Syndicate (also known as The Theater of Eternal Music) was an improvisational group active in the 60s, featuring avant-garde artists La Monte Young, his wife Marian Zazeela (on vocals), Billy Name (on guitar, better known from Warhol's Factory), Angus MacLise (on percussion), and later on, John Cale and Tony Conrad. In parallel with John Cage's performances and Fluxus sound experiments and 'events', the group was known for elaborate performances. They would sustain notes for hours at a time, introducing a lack of compositional theme (known as Eternal Music). The group disbanded in 1965.

Tony Conrad: I basically said, "Keep an even beat going throughout the whole thing", which is almost impossible. When I worked with Faust, I told the bass player this, but they didn't believe me.

Collaborating with Faust core members (Jean Herve Peron's rippingly metallic bass and Zappi Diermaier's stoically thunderous drums), Conrad added his shrill and ever-changing 'eternal music' violin ruminations. The result, an exact middle point between krautrock and early drone, could only be mind blowing.

Year of Release: 1973 / 2002 (remastered 30th Anniversary Edition)
Label: Table of the Contents (US)
Genre: krautrock / drone / experimental

Tracklist:
Cd 1:

From the Side of Man and Womankind (27:16)

From the Side of the Machine (26:20)

Cd 2 (30th Annivaersary Edition):
The Pyre of Angus Lies in Kathmandu (3:38)
The Death of the Composer Was in 1962 (3:16)
From the Side of Man and Womankind (Complete, 31:10)

Download: part 1, part 2, part 3

Download Size: 209 MB (ripped at 320kbps)

Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill

Once again I would like to thank those of you who offered words of encouragement during my absence. December was a rough month for me, and a slow period for Digital Meltd0wn. I'm feeling much better now, and I plan to post as often as I can, yet I'm still stretched for time. If any of you are interested in being a regular contributor here, please send me a e-mail message or leave a comment here on the blog. Due to my limited time I will have to write short reviews, but I will compensate by including a professional review of each album to give you all a better idea of what to expect.

A warning was included on the inside cover of the original Cottonwoodhill album stating: "After Listening to this Record, your friends may not know you anymore" and "Only listen to this once a day. Your brain might be destroyed!" Once you listen to it the first time you should have no problem understanding why. Although Brainticket's subsequent releases could be considered Krautrock, and display a far more docile side of Brainticket, Cottonwoodhill is a psychedelic monstrosity of the highest magnitude.

Brainticket originally formed in 1968, consisting of members from Swiss, German, and Italian descent. Although members came and went during their tenure together, their most popular lineup consisted of Joel Vandroogenbroeck (organ, flute), Ron Bryer (guitar), Werni Frohlich (bass), Cosimo Lampis (drums), Wolfgang Paap (tabla), Dawn Muir (vocals), Carole Muriel (vocals, zither) and Hellmuth Kolbe (potentiometers, generators, and sound effects).


Cottonwoodhill is one of the trippiest records ever made, capturing the intensity of the peak LSD experience far more successfully than any Timothy Leary recording, and even today, when many such documents from that era can sound silly and dated, Brainticket's fascinating debut still holds hallucinogenic potency. The record has only two proper songs, "Black Sand" and "Places of Light," with a side and a half of the album taken up by the three-part "Brainticket." "Black Sand" opens the disc with a driving funk beat and powerful organ and guitar interplay, adding in vocals distorted beyond coherency. "Places of Light" begins in a slightly lighter vein as a flute leads the proceedings, a looser jazzier piece that throws in some of Dawn Muir's odd spoken word vocals. Before one realizes what has happened, the piece has faded out and there is suddenly a crashing sound, car horns, and engines starting up. "Brainticket" is a bizarre roller coaster ride through weird sound effects and electronics, an endless organ riff, and Muir's acid-rush ramblings from hushed whisper to urgent screams, as any coherency she had earlier becomes lost to mind-expanding visions. Rather than the laid-back mellow groove of some psychedelic music from this era, Cottonwoodhill has a hyper energy in the frenetic organ riff and Muir's voice, like an acid trip out of control, while at times the various sound effects take over completely. - Allmusic

Year of Release: 1971
Label: Bellaphon
Genre: Psychedelic, Experimental, Krautrock
Bitrate: 192kbps

Track List:
1. Black Sand
2. Places of Light
3. Brainticket Part I
4. Brainticket Part I Conclusion
5. Brainticket Part II

Download: Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill
Download Size: 47MB

Birth Control- Hoodoo Man

Often when one thinks of the Krautrock phenomenon that took off in the 1970s, bands like Tangerine Dream, Can, Neu!, and Kraftwerk come to mind. Often forgotten in the wave of those bands is Birth Control. Formed in Berlin, Germany in 1969, Birth Control has been described as a Krautrock, progressive rock band but this band had a harder edge and more of a jazz influence than most progressive rock bands of their era. I believe Birth Control's first three albums are essential buys for any fan of progressive rock or Krautrock, but I have chosen to spotlight "Hoodoo Man."

Released in 1972, Hoodoo Man, immediately attracts attention by its unusual cover art, which had been a running theme for Birth Control up until this point. If the cover art is not enough of a signal to what Birth Control is about, the first track, "Buy!" offers up an immediate glimpse into their serious with a light-hearted spin subject matter.

Tracks "Buy!," "Get Down on Your Fate, and "Gamma Ray," the band's biggest hit, are album highlights. With only 6 tracks, it is all killer and no filler. Do not let this great piece of progressive rock continue to go underrated. Enjoy!

Year of Release: 1972
Genre: Krautrock, Progressive Rock
Label: CBS

Track List

1. Buy!
2. Suicide
3. Get Down to Your Fate
4. Gamma Ray
5. Hoodoo Man
6. Kaulstoss

Download: Birth Control- Hoodoo Man
Download Size: 77.18 MB