Donovan's Brain - The Great Leap Forward
(Career)
Following three albums on the independent Get Hip label (owned by the leader of Pittsburgh's finest garage band, The Cynics), musician, DJ, producer, recording studio owner (God's Little Ear Acre), archivist, music critic (I-94 Bar), restaurateur, and all-around solid sender Ron Sanchez adds label owner to his hat rack with this debut release on his Career Record label, co-owned with Radio Birdman guitarist Deniz Tek.
"Neuro Psych Trail Head" kicks off the new era of Brain matter with a light, airy, flower-powered-by-love ditty, sounding like it came straight off the Peter Cook-Dudley Moore soundtrack for "Bedazzled" or the Rubbles collection of 60s British psychedelia. The driving, funky jungle rhythms and wall-of-vocals (courtesy Megan Pickerel) of bassist Jeff Arntsen's "Crystal Palace" (from the repertoire of his other project, Racket Ship) is sure to be a crowd pleaser at the discos, sounding like Laurie Anderson fronting the Tom Tom Club, and guitarist Colter Langan's "All Fall Down" continues mining the gold from 60s Brit pop by copping the bass line from The Kinks' "Tired of Waiting," but all is forgiven once we're treated to the excellent solo from guest Braincell, Tek.
The sleepy, cotton-mouthed John Lennon vocals on "Cloud Maker" (perhaps Langan's finest composition to date), would place it somewhere in the Rubber Soul/Revolver era, "Loving Indifference" sets the controls for the heart of Syd Barrett in a whirling dervish maelstrom of space rock, and "Ocean of Storms" is what sitting crosslegged on the floor sifting nature's finest on that gatefold sleeve spread across your lap is all about.
With the participation from former Man/Help Yourself stalwarts Malcolm Morley and Richard Treece and ex-Fleetwood Mac/Savoy Brown guitarist Dave Walker, The Great Leap Forward is knee-steep in obscure, esoteric, British blues and psychedelia. It's not as poppily accessible as the Soundtrack of Our Lives, but it is just as essential, and perhaps more richly rewarding upon subsequent listens.
Most Brain albums have sounded like compilations, collated from many archival recordings excised and dusted off from the God's Little Ear Acre vaults, and "Great Leap" is no exception. However, with only the ballad of the band on the run shenanigans of "The Ballad of Where's Jim" (presumably a reference to former member Jim Kehoe), the Residents-at-a-frat-party confusion of "My Little Town," and the hesitant omni-directional uncertainty of "The Known Sea" failing to impress, this is a great leap forward (duh!) and an otherwise stellar presentation from the finest band ever to emerge from Big Sky country.
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