not new music tuesdays

Brainticket - Cottonwoodhill (1970, Bellaphon)

I've always found it slightly humourous when a group or artist finds it necessary to put a disclaimer on their record. While these lines can range from the innocent, like Let it Bleed's "This record should be played loud," to the slightly enigmatic "Play twice before listening" of the Silver Apples debut, Cottonwoodhill's come in the form of warnings: "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!" Although I'm fairly certain that no brains have been destroyed by this album, I'm still a bit hesitant to put that second one to the test.

Brainticket is often associated with the krautrock movement, but were actually a Swiss group with members from all over Europe. The first two tracks of this album aren't bad, reflecting the heavy Deep Purple/Pink Floyd influence that was prevalent in most of the more obscure European/kraut groups of the time, but the record is really a vehicle for the final, three part track titled "Brainticket."

I guess you really have to put your all into a song that is named after your band and these guys do a pretty good job of that. They pile a pretty outrageous mix of synth effects, found sounds, and crazy 'female on tons of acid' vocal ramblings about paranoia, sex and God knows what else over a pretty funky, repetitive, almost Can-like backing track. I'll admit that it's pretty overwhelming to listen to very often, but it's pretty nice to dust this one off every now and then.