Joel Vandroogenbroeck Biomechanoid

Second pressing due to high demand in a sleeve with a silver background. 'Biomechanoid' is the classic 1980 album by composer and flautist Joel Vandroogenbroeck. It's 1980, in Munich, Germany, upstart production music label Coloursound Library releases their debut album. Capitalising on the success of Ridley Scott's 'Alien' film, the label dropped 'Biomechanoid', featuring cover art commissioned by H.R. Giger - whose horrific 'Necronom IV' lithograph served as the basis for the design of 'Alien' - and the music of the relatively unknown Joel Vandroogenbroeck. Comprised of bleak, cinematic synth soundscapes and percussion, the album served as an inaugural calling card for what would be a decade of dizzying solo releases by Vandroogenbroeck for Coloursound, running the gamut from Mesopotamian ethno-folk to synth sequencer funk to electro drum breaks to in-utero ambient delights. Though the Belgian-born Vandroogenbroeck, 74, may not be a household name; in an ideal world, he would be. As the founder, flautist, harpist, sitar player and keyboardist of the seminal acid-fried Swiss psych outfit BRAINTICKET, he spearheaded the group's three main (and collectible) releases in the early 70s - 'Cottonwood Hill', 'Celestial Ocean' and 'Psychonaut'. Combining a love of exotic instruments coupled with mind-bending out-of-body excursions, the ever-changing collective developed something of a cult following throughout Europe and earned a reputation as one of the heavier psych outfits on the circuit - which was something of a double-edged sword. While their experimental sound resonated with hippies everywhere, it didn't with the authorities, who associated the act with heavy drug consumption and subsequently began a ban of their music, especially the 'Psychonaut' album, if for the title alone. After that bitter brush with censorship, the group quietly disbanded in 1972. 'Biomechanoid' stands after all these years as an album full of dark, strange, disturbing soundscapes, the obscure side of Brainticket, proving how Joel was still a creative artist.