Brainchild - Healing Of The Lunatic Owl (1970)

Brainchild - Healing Of The Lunatic Owl (1970)

Lennie Wright from Web and Samurai produced Brainchild's first and only album, so it's no surprise that "Healing of the Lunatic Owl" is in a similar style to both "I Spider" and Samurai's self-titled album. That means early 70's progressive rock dominated by horns and organ. The opener "Autobiography" starts as a straightforward rocker, but turns in the middle into a complex instrumental section that lasts for the rest of the song. Although it's one of the shortest tracks on the album, it sums up nearly every side of the band's music very well. The swinging title-track is one of the highlights, and the structure is really not that far away from "Autobiography", but the track returns to the main part at the end again. The slow and bluesy beat of "Hide From the Dawn" is a bit more basic, but the long instrumental passages and complex arrangements make it well worth listening to. "She's Learning" is the catchiest song on the album, and has almost hit-potential. However, the longest tune is "A Time A Place", featuring dramatic vocal parts mixed with more intricate instrumental parts. "Two Bad Days" is for me the least good song, but the ballad "Sadness of a Moment" is really beautiful, consisting of nothing else than flute, guitar and vocals. And the album finally closes with the excellent instrumental "To "B"". I'm not sure if I would rate this album as high as "I Spider" or "Samurai", but it's still a very good LP worth finding if you enjoy the two mentioned bands or progressive rock with horns in general.

- Brainchild - She's Learning, from "Healing of the Lunatic Owl", in 1970, their sole album. The origins of this very competent brass/rock septet are a bit hazy. They appear to come from the UK, but we're not sure of this. That minor detail aside, if you enjoy If and The Alan Bown, you'll really like Brainchild, from the chunky fretless bass to the biting brasss ection. Their album came out on A & M Records, but original copies are harder to find than owls with human hands for feet! It is available on CD, however, and is certainly worth checking out.
- For those who love the music of "Samurai" or "The Web" will likely go crazy for Brainchild. This album juxtaposes trumpets, trombone, saxes and flutes over an organ fertilized field with great drum, guitar and bass pollination. Vocals are quite good and shared between Harvey Coles (Bass) and Bill Edwards (Guitars). Musically The Healing Of The Lunatic Owl combines 60's psych, blues, lounge, jazz and prog elements into their songs creating a highly original form of rock. Bass drum develop some very cool rhythm sections while the guitar and brass instruments convincingly carry the lead.

1. Autobiography 3:47
2. Healing Of The Lunatic Owl 5:21
3. Hide From The Dawn 7:12
4. She's Learning 4:24
5. A Time A Place 9:16
6. Two Bad Days 4:07
7. Sadness Of A Moment 4:18
8. To B 4:05