AMG Review of Brain Donor

Stewart Mason
All Music Guide

Brain Donor is a gloriously un-self-conscious side project from Julian Cope, who uses the power trio's occasional albums not as an escape from the Krautrock-inspired music and pagan lyrical obsessions of his post-'80s solo work, but as a different entry point into the same set of ideas. Playing bass for the first time since the early days of the Teardrop Explodes, Cope teams up with Doggen (Dogan Foster), a metal-obsessed lead guitarist, and John Bonham-inspired drummer Kev Bales (both of whom occasionally sub as members of Spiritualized as well) to record straightforward heavy rock. As much Slade and Black Sabbath as MC5 or Stooges, Brain Donor's first album may not appeal to fans of Cope's more purely psychedelic work, but songs like the sneering opener "My Pagan Ass" and the throb-rock churn of "White Van" will sound familiar to anyone who's spent time with Cope's previous releases. Only the most metal-averse of Cope's fans will dislike it.