Mark Lager’s Summer Vinyl: Brainticket – Psychonaut (1972)
June – the longest daylight of the year, the summer solstice. Brainticket’s Psychonaut was released 50 years ago (June 1972). The back cover of the record contains cumulus clouds drifting across blue skies – a portrait of summertime.
The front cover of the record (my vinyl copy is the most recent picture disc reissue by Purple Pyramid from 2020) features astounding artwork by Umberto Santucci – images of birth, childhood, consciousness, death. The right side of the front cover features an adolescent, almost resembling an alien, clutching a doll next to an archetypal house and a green faced, maternal woman whose head is sprouting plants. The center of the front cover shows a smiling woman with arms outstretched wearing ceremonial, ritual robes and the face of a woman whose interior brain can be seen with ghostly figures tumbling out of her brain. The left side of the front cover displays an erotic, faceless woman, a black bird perched atop her head in the shadows and an old woman on her deathbed.
Brainticket was formed by Belgian classical/jazz organist/pianist Joel Vandroogenbroeck and was originally a power trio with British guitarist Ron Bryer and German drummer Wolfgang Paap. They recorded their debut with a female vocalist from England, Dawn Muir, and named it after a neighborhood, Cottonwoodhill. The album seemed to chronicle a bad drug trip and became controversial. This dilemma, along with the death of guitarist Ron Bryer, caused Vandroogenbroeck to break up the band. Vandroogenbroeck left England and moved to Italy where he met drummer Barney Palm, two Swiss musicians (guitarist Rolf Hug and bassist Martin Sacher), and two American expatriate women Jane Free and Carole Muriel. This expanded formation (six members of the band) led to Vandroogenbroeck creating what was, in my opinion, the greatest album of his career.
Cottonwoodhill’s title track is chaotic, crazy, and demented, while Vandroogenbroeck’s third record (a concept album about Egyptian kings traveling through their afterlife) Celestial Ocean contains serene spacescapes yet also some tracks that become a bit overwhelmed by the sci-fi sound effects. Psychonaut presents a balance between instrumentation and songwriting, showcasing both the skills and talents of musicians Vandroogenbroeck, Hug, Sacher, Palm and the poetry/singing of Free and Muriel.
The longest track on the record, opener “Radagacuca”, fades in with droning organ, floating flutes, and ritualistic sitar from Vandroogenbroeck and exotic tribal percussion by Barney Palm that immediately summons an intoxicating nocturnal atmosphere for the listener. The lyrics are about acid, cannabis, and a clandestine couple.
“So he was the man with the pipe
and when he came back from travelling
he always brought you a chewing gum
with a silver aeroplane on it
You could play in the bath
on a Saturday evening”
The track then suddenly transitions into wildness with bird calls, fiery organ, shouts, and slide whistle. This opening seven minute track (and the later closing track) is a soundtrack for the bonfires and exultations on the night of the summer solstice.
“One Morning” opens with a refreshing summer shower, a thunderstorm, while echoing percussion and piano pan across the stereo spectrum. The heat and humidity of “Radagacuca” have now been released during the following day.
“Watchin’ You” is a complete contrast to the delicacy of “One Morning”, this track is the band at their most hard rocking. The listener is now introduced to the bold, powerful vocals of Jane Free as she recites a song where the lyrics (“there’s a shadow watchin’ you, when you’re walking in the street, you’ll never be alone, look behind you, walkin’ home, they’re unknown”) are similar to a scene from one of the stylish giallo films that was peaking in popularity during that same year of 1972 (this album was recorded at Durium Studios in Milan, Italy). Rolf Hug’s guitar gets a spotlight as he cuts loose on some super cool, yet short, soloing. The track ends with a sitar run from Vandroogenbroeck and a mysterious organ coda brings side one to a close.
Side two of the record opens with another rock track, this song “Like a Place in the Sun” is even more captivating and compelling because it alternates between Jane Free’s fiery singing and Carole Muriel’s mesmerizing, mysterious voice. Similar to “Watchin’ You”, this is another late night trip through a cityscape in Europe that is sinister and strange.
“Go back, go towards that light
Brighter and brighter
I’ve come a long way
Been to a city
People, lots of people rushing all around you
But you find no one there
No one can hear
Nothing within
And that’s the city of no one.”
“Feel the Wind Blow” is the best song Brainticket ever recorded. This song is an airy afternoon and delicate evening in June. You are wandering around outside while this blissed-out, ethereal hidden gem of psychedelic folk featuring Carole Muriel’s and Jane Free’s beautifully haunting vocals and nature poetry clears your stressed mind and takes you to a magical, peaceful place:
“Wandering on a summer’s day
Listen to the trees
Whispering a chant they sway
Bowing to the breeze
Found a sea of green wheat field
Waves float over me
Closing scars of agony unsealed
Flying high and free
Birds chattering and singing songs
Can it be they want to say
There’s rhythm in it all……”
The closing track, “Coc’o Mary” is a six minute instrumental where Vandroogenbroeck’s flute playing sounds like Jethro Tull, his organ playing sounds like Deep Purple, and Barney Palm’s percussion sounds like Santana’s band circa their 1969 performance of “Soul Sacrifice”. The album would have had a more memorable ending if the sequencing had placed “Coc’o Mary” earlier in the tracklist and the closing song had been “Feel the Wind Blow”.
by Mark Lager