(Impresario, 2001)Brain Donor is, of all things, Julian Cope and two members of Spiritualized fusing the whole of their hard-rock and heavy metal influences into a single beast. Double-necked guitars, full makeup, platform boots, picture discs… nothing halfway about it. It’s a curveball coming from these guys, but still, when the musical game plan is laid out on paper, it all sounds like it should be so, so right – Cope is a smart feller with notoriously good taste, the band members know their stuff, and I too love the early heroes of guitar trash (although, and this isn’t going to win me any friends, I am in fact a Creatures of the Night man when it comes to Kiss). The bigger shock might be that the whole thing actually comes together so well on record. This is fun, dirty r’n’r, no fucking around. “She Saw Me Coming” is an amphetamine kick, a convincing approximation of late-period Stooges, totally mean and streamlined, with Cope doing his best Iggy. The dual-channel solos show more technical precision than any Stooge, but the flash adds excitement rather than flab. On the other side, there’s a stoner feel to the rolling “Shaman U.F.O.,” and here the strained vocals are a minor nuisance in what would otherwise be a fine acid-stomp instrumental. Any small complaints aside, though, none of this record feels forced or faked; it’s just rough and raw sleaze rawk done the way it should be. Brain Donor could have – should have? – been an embarrassing bellyflop, but on this first single, at least, they have it down cold.
1 comment:
Gee, I wish I hadn't followed your link to "laid down on paper." I prefer to forget the brainspun balderdash of minor rock godhood exists.
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