While most fans of Brainticket consider 'Cottonwoodhill' their best psyched… Read Full Bio ↴While most fans of Brainticket consider 'Cottonwoodhill' their best psychedelic album, I still lean toward 'Psychonaut' as the top pick. In 1972, this group was fairly little known outside of Germany, Switzerland, and Italy although they had a strong following among collectors right from the beginning. Joel vandroogenbroeck, Wolfgang Paap, Dawn Muir, Hellmuth Kolbe, and the others were surprisingly excellent musicians; easily laying down some amazing jazz licks without losing love for raga, exotic drum beats, and killer flute. I love how they used analog delay across a variety of instruments without losing the melody or focus of the music. They could make groups like Jethro Tull or Focus perk up and take notice. Nice natural sounds long before world music became hip.
The first track "Radagacuca" is a lengthy no-doubt-acid-trip-inspired jam with soft vocals giving way to the faster, grinding chorus part. Some neat Indian-style raga sitar and tabla in there. "Watchin' you" follows in a similar vein - a little slower but still engaging. "One Morning" and "Feel the Wind Blow" have a more radio friendly vibe (the later with an interesting German spoken dialogue part in the beginning) ...very hippie-esque
The final track, "Coc'o mary", sounds a lot like a Focus tune -a long jam-only more psychedelic and experimental. Check out the bells and marimba in the middle section. Most groovy!