They are back: Brainiac 5’s new album Memory or Dream continues with the basic sound of bass, guitar, drums, and the occasional harmonica, Jew’s harp, kalimba, bamboo flute, and bass recorder. Of course, it’s a melodic (and quite quirky!) collection of great psych-rock tunes. This is wonderful ’60s and ’70s stuff that has been tugged and transported into our modern listening world.
But not so fast! This new album from Pygtrack Records is vinyl only. There’s not a digital digit to be downloaded. Not only that, but a readable lyric sheet is included. The record comes in a really cool full-size vinyl sleeve (thank you, Hurford!) which can be examined for close enjoyment and symbolic interpretation, all the while as the groove spins around and around.
The first song, “Racing the Sunset Home,” begins with a nice (sort of) funky guitar, while the band chugs in a bluesy vibe. The bass positively pops and then the guitar goes (to quote the great Irish band, Horslips) “sideways to the sun.” There’s a nice vocal with an infectious “whooo” whoop. And there’s a jazzy bit at the very end. Gentle Giant compressed similar creativity into the brevity of a few minutes of music.
There’s a tough sense of late-’60s psych-pop vocal melodies on Memory or Dream. “Last Chance Town” begins with an intricate guitar webbed matrix, but later ignites with six-string weirdly tattooed sparks, while the drums and bass dance a solid version of (the always popular) “Loco-Motion” groove. And yes, Virginia, there is a kalimba and harmonica coda that ushers in the end of the song. Then, “Running Through the Night” continues the dance with blues-psych vocal urgency, ala the Animals, with a really nice electric guitar-dotted exclamation point.
“The Ground” lightens the load with bulging bass, a Jew’s harp, that bamboo flute, and a vocal that touches the post-punk sound of (the very great band) Wire. I suppose we all need to dance into Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp” every once in a while. “The Admiral, Albert Terrace, Penzance 1978” evokes a folky vibe. Nice. The final song on side one (and the title cut), “Memory or Dream,” is a tune with a deep orbit that oozes in the circumference of The Pretty Things, circa S.F. Sorrow. Big compliment, there.
By the way, my friend Kilda Defnut thinks Brainiac 5’s record should be called The Return of the Son of an Attention Span. “It’s just an idea,” she said, “but this vinyl music demands side-long attention and is sort of an alien invasion that does weird things to the minds of record-buying humans. And the kids have avoided, with a communal download song puffed through phone earphones, a confrontation with this synapse melding beast for way too long!” Sure. What a great movie title: Godzilla and an Attention Span Against Phone-Addicted Humanity – with English subtitles, authentic Kaiju monster special effects, and (of course) a vinyl-only soundtrack.
That said, Memory or Dream needs to be flipped to “Side Two.” From there, “it is obvious” (to quote Syd Barrett) that the psych-rock dance continues. “Double Stiles, Newquay” rocks with more of a ’60s vibe. There’s a goldmine of a guitar solo that conjures Dave Davies’ free-form fretwork on those early Kinks singles. Then “A Blind Man’s Life” slows the pulse with a harmonica touch and a gentle guitar solo. The acoustic side of Julian Cope comes to mind.
A combination of Jew’s harp and kalimba introduces “Swerve,” which in a weird way could almost be a tune from a King Crimson album that “dances in the rain” with Adrian Belew’s Discipline vocal vibe and an electric guitar pulse that grinds (as a Fripp solo tends to do) with hydrogen as it morphs into helium, with a nice touch of Savoy Brown guy Kim Simmons’ slide guitar coda.
“Cry in Style” is acoustic folk-song vocal-harmony euphoria. Nice, once again. “Love’s in Retreat” pushes the pace into a (sort of) dramatic reggae rock dance step. Finally, “The Point” is a brief rift-driven tune with heavy guitar, harmonica, and whispered vocals – all of which end Brainiac 5’s Memory or Dream with a nice and final enigmatic farewell inner groove glance. It’s an odd cornucopian recipe. Not only that, but as the liner notes state, “watch the potatoes land in formation.” Nice, all over again!
As (the always great) Ian Anderson once sang, “spin me back down the years and days of my youth” – because Brainiac 5 has conjured those old nights when a new album was a clever stereo friend, like warm musical stars, with the audio vibe to leaven magic from the classic psych-rock ageless music vinyl thoughts that still, even after all these years, wonder whether it’s a Memory or a Dream.
That may well be the gist of any great thinking-man’s rock ‘n’ roll music album.
- Coincidence – ‘Coincidence,’ ‘Clef de Ciel’ + ‘Archives 1973-1974’ (2024) - November 17, 2024
- Mile Marker Zero – ‘Coming of Age’ (2024) - October 14, 2024
- Burton Cummings – ‘A Few Good Moments’ (2024) - October 7, 2024
