Brainticket — Cottonwood Hill

Cottonwood Hill is often quoted as one of the most tripped-out, and head screwing records of all time.  And it was meant to be an attempt to try capture a LSD trip in sonic form.

The album was the first release of German Psychedelic rock/ Krautrock project Brainticket. It originally appeared  back in 1971, as a joint release between two German labels-Hallelujah & Bellaphon. The album took in a running time of just over thirty four mintues, and five tracks( four on the original vinyl as the 4th track was cut in half) which lasted between just over four mintues & thirteen mintues.  And I guess you’d classify the albums sonic setting as locked down & slightly funky krautrock riffing, which is laid-over & swirled by sensual & tripped-out female spoken word elements, and shifting collage of psychedelic sounds & effects.

This 2013 reissue offers up the album in it’s original form, with a new 2013 remasteing, though sadly there are no  other sonic extras here. The CD comes in a mini gatefold, which features a eight page booklet, that takes in a write-up & recent interview with band fonder, vocalist & keyboard player Joel Vandroogenbroeck – the piece covers the bands formation and the release of Cottonwood.

The album opens up with the locked down galloping semi funky grooving organ & strutting rock guitar vibe of “Black Sand”- with Vandroogenbroeck  hazy electro altered vocals merging with the tracks jaunting groovy.  Track two comes in the form of “Places of Light”, and starts off slighty slower in it’s still locked down groovy rock groove, with this time a stoned flute trail merging in with the organ & gitar- as the track progress we get sudden burst of more up-beat pace, and  the first appearance of  tripped-out  & sensual  female spoken word elements from Dawn Muir, as she spouts psychedelic & cryptic texts.

Next we move onto the track “Brainticket( Part One)”, and this track, along it’s following track “Brainticket( Part Two)”, is were the album gets it's tripped-out & head screwing notoriety from. The track opens with  the sound of glass smashing, running footsteps, and circling sirens- then at just before the minute mark we kick into another fairly simple locked down & organ lined funky rock groove. Pretty soon we get another slew of sound effects, sound textures & weird-ness added to the mix, along with snippets of Ms Muir’s voice,  female laugher & male grunts. The sound effects/ textures take in: crowd sounds, running, more sirens, more smashing glass, tooth bushing & gurgles, sustained & noise keyboard  textures, tolling bells, layered noise brushings, what sounds like speed up heating fan recordings, more crowd noise, slowed down machine gun sounds, buried radio interview snippets.  And All the while we get random input from Ms Muir, as she goes into dramatic & sensual overdrive, spouting a few paragraphs of cryptic 'n' triped-out texts ever so often.

“Brainticket( Part Two)” starts off  with the same old familiar strutting organ & guitar riff, but fairly soon Ms Muir’s is back again with more dramatic, tripped-out, and at times sensual texts. By the two minute mark she’s joined by swirls of electro pitch drill & swoon, and crackling layers of churning robot sounds. Pretty soon Ms Muir departs again, and we lock down into a mix of electro textural pitch hovers & rises, which carry on over the locked down groove. At the five minute mark the looped riff drops back a bit, and we get a looped & sci-fied male voice saying the  word 'Brainticket' a few times, then the riff comes back in & we get another parade of sounds & samples, like  sudden raised choirs, slowed gun shoots, road drills, car acceleration, and more electro tone swoops 'n' sails. By the ten minute mark we get more dramatics spoken words from Ms Muir- this time it seems to be something to do with her been pregnant( I think), and more theatrical rants & raves, along with a overloaded flock of sound effects- then the track just suddenly cuts-out,

So does Cottonwood Hill stand up to it’s tripped out & mind melt notoriety, yes I guess it does on the two part “Brainticket” tracks, and the first two tracks are pleasant enough examples of groovy slightly trippy Krautrock groove. I guess if I could criticise something it would be the same-ness of the riffs through-out, but I guess that goes with the Krautrock territory. Anyway if you are a collector of odd and mind altering sonic fair, it’s worth checking this out, sure it’s very much of it’s time, but there is trippy fun to be had here.