BRAIN POLICE - San Diego's Only Psychedelic Cops
San Diegos's Brain Police were one of the city's most popular attractions in 1968, but they never managed to release an album. They did, however, record some demos, and some of these were hawked around by their manager in late 1968. Thirty years later they were re-issued by Rockadelic Records and they show what a great band they were. Although recorded on a four-track machine by a band still in their teens, their self-penned songs would have given some of the best West Coast bands a run for their money. Every track is first rate, with 'Election For Mayor' seguing into 'Ride My Train Of Thought' seamlessly, and being followed by the keyboard led 'I'll Be On The Inside If I Can'. A track like 'Getting Too Much Higher' exemplifies how the band bridged the divide between the flower power bands of 1967 and the heavy rock that was to come in 1969, making them very much ahead of their time. Rick Randle handled vocals, guitar, keyboards and harmonica, as well as writing half of the songs on here, with the rest being composed by Norman Lombardo. Randle's tracks encompass the heavy rock of 'Gypsy Fast Woman' and the poppy 'Adler', while one of the highlights of the album is Lombardo's 'World Of Wax'. This song was re-recorded as a single in 1969 by a drastically different version of the band, and in the process they seem to have lost the spark that made them stand out, while the B-side 'Smoking At Willow Hill' was a soft-pop effort that sounds completely out of place as a bonus track on here. The original Rockadelic issue is now increasingly hard to find, so this latest CD appearance is most welcome. Just when you think there are no more undiscovered gems to be unearthed you can be proved wrong by an album like this one. Highly recommended to any fans of West Coast psyche.