Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill and Celestial Ocean (1971 / 1974)

"Brainticket was a collective of Belgian, German and Swiss musicians, headed by multi-instrumentalist Joel Vandroogenbroeck, who pedalled a strain of experimental Krautrock, for the delectation of anybody willing to listen." taken from headfullofsnow.com

There you go: a krautrock band led by a mad Belgian, based in Switzerland (or something). If you're of the nervous disposition, I recommend listening to the less-scary, more straightforward Celestial Ocean first:


tracklisting

01. Egyptian Kings
02. Jardins
03. Rainbow
04. Era Of Technology
05. To Another Universe
06. The Space Between
07. Cosmic Wind
08. Visions

Carole Muriel: vocals, percussion, sounds
Barney Palm: drums, percussion, vocals, baja
Joël Vandroogenbroek: keyboards, flute, guitar, vocals

Download from Fileserve.com

What can I say about their first album?


Absolutely bonkers! Brainticket's debut is quite possibly the untimate Krautrock wig-out.

From the record company: Advice: After listening to this record, your friends won't know you anymore.
Warning: Only listen once a day to this record. Your brain may be destroyed. Hallelujah records takes no responsibility.

Joël Vandroogenbroeck: organ, flute
Ron Bryer: guitar
Werni Frohlich: bass guitar
Cosimo Lampis: drums
Wolfgang Paap: tabla
Dawn Muir: voice
Hellmuth Kolbe: potentiometers, generators and sound effects

And this from Anteater on musicbanter.com: Personally, I am of the opinion this is a rather dangerous album (especially the title track on side 2) to anyone who does drugs of any kind. Those warnings that were on the original vinyl really were there in all seriousness: Putting this on while you aren't in the right frame of mind as some people did back then when they heard this will inevitably cause bad trips and terrible nightmares. 'Cause For every wah-wah guitar grooving solo there is dissonance and darkness, and back then even the trippiest music was positive to a point. However, there is nothing happy or positive about Cottonwoodhill. Only stark-raving madness with something sinister along its borders, and to some that is what set it apart and above from almost anything done back then. Also, there is no singing, but only the insanely doped up Timothy Leary-esque ranting of Dawn Miur, the female "vocalist". Spoken-word sequences compliment this sort of mind-expanding music very well, and its interesting and hypnotic even if you aren't really paying attention.
As with what I said about Dracula's Music Cabinet when I reviewed it, this is yet another album not for the faint of ear. Cottonwoodhill's effects on the human mind were thought to be so damaging that it was even BANNED in France, Italy and the U.K. upon its initial release It is, without a doubt, the best goddamn piece of psychedelic music ever committed to record.

He he, are you SURE you still wanna hear it?

tracklisting (for the brave):

01. Black Sand
02. Places Of Light
03. Brainticket Part 1
04. Brainticket Part 1 [Conclusion]
05. Brainticket Part 2

Download at Fileserve.com

Please leave me a comment :¬)