Brainiac 5 - We're Ready

by Kimberly Bright

published: 17 / 1 / 2018

Label: Reckless Records
Format: CD

First-rate new album of older and recent material from reunited psych-punks the Brainiac 5 which sounds shockingly fresh

Review

The original members of local psych-punk Cornish heroes the Brainiac 5 met in Penzance in the mid-‘70s. Singer-guitarist Charlie Taylor had previously been in the experimental freeform Half Human Band and was well known in the southwest music scene. The Brainiac 5 had a weekly residency at Jacey’s Blues Bar in the sail loft of the London Inn in Penzance and played festivals, colleges, tourist resorts, and pubs in Cornwall and the rest of the West Country before moving to London. Charlie described their sound and the Cornish environment in an interview with 'Psychedelic Baby' magazine: “…a combination of listening to the San Francisco psychedelic bands of the ‘60s and absorbing the very laid-back atmosphere of West Cornwall at the time. The Summer of Love was still continuing down there ten years after it finished elsewhere.” The Brainiac 5 were favorably compared to Robyn Hitchcock’s early band the Soft Boys as well as the Pink Fairies, with their first EP 'Mushy Doubt' (1978), produced by Hawkwind’s Martin Griffin, finding fans in John Peel and revered American songwriter Alex Chilton. Unfortunately the band broke up before the release of their debut album 'World Inside', which was eventually put out by Reckless in 1988, and singer-guitarist Charlie Taylor moved to America to work for Reckless stores there. They went their separate ways until 2013, when Charlie returned to the UK and the Reckless label restarted. The band’s underground reputation all over the country had never quite gone away. When the band reconvened with original members Charlie on guitar and vocals, John 'Woody' Wood on bass, and Duncan 'Mad Dog' Kerr on guitar and vocals, they continued to do things in their own time, as always, in this case in a manic burst of activity that has seen several releases in four years. Their most recent album is 'We’re Ready!' On the inside of the CD cover one of the band members is, amusingly, looking very pointedly at his watch while the others drink beer (maybe Charlie missed St. Austell beer, which is not sold in the U.S. – yet) and appear to play an outsized form of chess nearby. The Brainiac 5 are joined by vocalist Jessie Pie and longtime collaborator Cornish poet Bert Biscoe, who contributes a great spoken word piece ('From the Doorway'). The music veers from pub rock, Jah Wobble, and early PiL to moments of festive psych. 'Drinking Song' sounds simultaneously original late-‘70s post-punk and contemporary. 'Wave' is an energetic pastiche of good hooks, a fantastic bass solo, and an unexpected mellow flute part by Nick Onley in the middle. “Keep on driving,” Charlie sings. “See how far you can go.” 'My Time' could have been lifted from any album-oriented radio station in the late ‘70s, sandwiched on a playlist somewhere between Jackson Browne and Eddie Money. 'She’s Free', a reworking of their early song 'Trotsky', is a highlight, with dirty Dr. Feelgood guitar, about an emotionally unavailable woman (who, to the singer’s dismay, seduces a fisherman on the Coastal Path, among others) who drives her to flee to London to get over the psychological torment. It starts off as a reggae-tinged torch song, then blasts into the howl of “I’m in love with a girl, but she doesn’t love me!” 'Space is the Place' sounds like the Jam, with a shout-along chorus, until the proggy Yes-like guitar solos take over. Interestingly the song was inspired by – and is dedicated to – the ever-experimental Afrofuturist Sun Ra, who is also credited with inspiring the band to reunite at all. 'Night Games' has the best back story of all: the lyrics, which don’t sound unusual on first listen, were taken from a Ouija board conversation supposedly with the spirit of Jimi Hendrix during the band’s early years. For original fans of the Brainiac 5, they sound like themselves, albeit now accomplished musicians with forty years of additional experience, and the same high energy level. The older faces and grayer hair may come as a bit of a shock to new listeners who could easily assume they’re hearing a new band of manic punks in their twenties.