Music review by Hildemollerknag

Line-up/Musicians
- Ron Bryer / guitar
- Werner Fröhlich / bass
- Helmuth Kolbe / keyboards
- Cosimo Lampis / drums
- Dawn Muir / vocals
- Wolfgang Paap / percussion
- Werni Prahlach / bass
- Joel Vandroogenbroeck / keyboards, flute, vocals
BRAINTICKET's debut album as a great psychedelic kraut record full of mind bending experimentation (if not structually), it's particularly great if you're in the mood for it but it has to be acknowledged that it's certainly not for everyone and is very much a love it or hate it affair. The primary reason for this is that the songwriting is fairly primitive in that all the songs are generally one riff or progression with various instrumentation and vocal wailings over the top which isn't a bad thing at all because it perfectly suits the music.

The album starts with 'Black Sand' with a pounding rhyhthmic drum and bass section with great organ and guitar wailing over the top and heavily effected vocals over the top. 'Places of Light' is more of the same this time with more of funky foundation and some female vocals. The three part 'Brainticket' will either make or break the album for you, it's pretty much the same riff over all 3 parts (and what a riff) with paranoid frantic female spoken word craziness (she sounds like she's about to climax) and all kinds of effects and samples over the top, a great soundtrack of an acid trip.

Cottonwoodhill is not for the faint of heart you'll either love it or hate it, in my case I love it, I think it's a great psychedelic album for chilling out, fans of kraut and psychedelia should definitely check this out. By Frump
Tracks
01. Black Sand
02. Places of Light
03. Brainticket, Pt. 1
04. Brainticket, Pt. 1: Conclusion
05. Brainticket, Pt. 2
Listen

Drum Circus is a shortlived Swiss band founded by the great drummer Peter Giger. The band he formed had three drummers (!) and many other musicians, including Joel Vandroogenbroeck, from Brainticket, playing Organ, Piano, Flute and Sitar. Carole Muriel from Brainticket appears also in the band doing vocals. Other curious thing about their only album is that the lyrics of two songs were written by the LSD guru Timothy Leary. After all this definition one can only think that the music contained in this album is rather crazy and in fact it is. If you like drumming/percussion, you will love this album.
The sidelong eponymous track, Magic Theatre, has many things and ideas included. The lyrics are inspired in the Tibetan Book of The Dead, written by Leary. The sound is varied, with a percussion intro, nice organ, good flute and drum passage, some drums with a collective chanting and then fantastic sitar sounds that are very skillfully played, along with some crazy saxophone, mridanga (indian percussion) and indian-inspired chanting. Then are some avant-garde parts with percussion, sax improvisation and great organ sounds. After some jamming, there is some spoken phrases interpreted by the singers like in a play. After that a calm part with sitar, flute and percussion. Then some jazzy parts, with jazzy piano and saxophone, plus very good drumming. In the end there is the return of the theme under the spoken part.

The other songs are good also. Now It Hurts You is short, but has excellent sitar, organ and drumming. The vocals are strange in this song. Papera is a rather jazzy song with some soft saxophone arrangement and good piano. Percussion is always present and very interesting. The song has some changes during it.

La-Si-Do is the strangest song with strange vocals and dominated by percussion, with many different sounds generating a good combination.

Groove Rock is really groovy, with superb saxophone soloing and great organ and percussion backing the solo. The song is jazzy and the highlights are the superb drumming and the great saxophone.

All Things Pass has interesting piano and percussive sounds. The singing is inspired. The piano arrangement is somewhat jazzy and the drumming parts are very improvisational, with the usage of the less used parts of the drums, like cymbals.

Overall is a nice album with a great mix of psychedelic indian influences and jazz and impressive drumming. The sound is not so much varied and some shorter songs resemble the long suite, but this is a little common for their genre (Krautrock).
Tracks
1. Magic Theatre (21:32)
2. Now It Hurts You (2:48)
3. Papera (3:32)
4. La-Si-Do (2:22)
5. Groove Rock (8:44)
6. All Things Pass (3:25)
Listen.

The original BRAINTICKET had already collapsed after the recording of "Cottonwoodhill". Some of the members went to join future member of the Swiss prog band ISLAND (who released the album "Pictures" in 1977) Benjamin Jäger, and named the group TOAD. That group sounds little like BRAINTICKET, or like a precursor of the "Island" sound, but more like conventional hard rock. Meanwhile organist/flutist Joël Vandroogenbrock simply resurrected BRAINTICKET with brand new musicians (amongst them being Carol Muriel, Barney Palm, Jane Free and others).
The result being "Psychonaut" was an obvious reaction to their previous album, as this album was the complete opposite, going for actual songs here and avoiding any disturbing experiments. "Radagacuca" is that prime example, which starts off with some trippy organ, some echoey flutes, and of course, silly lyrics. "One Morning" is a wonderful, piano oriented piece with pleasant vocals. "Watchin' You" is one of the more heavy, rocking pieces, and is by far the most rocking piece I ever heard BRAINTICKET do. "Like a Place in the Sun" features some spoken dialog, with parts reminding me of EARTH & FIRE (that's where people mistakenly think BRAINTICKET was a Dutch band, although Brainticket purposely obscure their nationality, as the band often consisted of international musicians). "Feel the Wind Blow" is a much more laid-back, acoustic piece, with George HARRISON like guitars. "Coc'o Mary" is a heavily percussion-dominated piece that sounds like a cross between SANTANA (because of the Latin-style percussion) and JETHRO TULL (because of the Anderson-like flute). Incredible album, which shows everything that was great in the early '70s
By Proghead.
Tracks
1. Radagacuca (7:24)
2. One Morning (3:51)
3. Watchin' You (5:15)
4. Like A Place In The Sun (6:28)
5. Feel The Wind Blow (3:32)
6. Coc'O Mary (6:08)
Download.