Brave New World
Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley

THE REVIEW

We are in 1972 when Brave New World release their second and last album, Impressions On Reading Aldous Huxley. Both the album and the group are decidedly interesting, though unfortunately short-lived. They deserve attention for their ability to organically blend different styles, opening a new path that would be followed in the following years by other groups—like, for example, Art Zoyd. The album, released by Vertigo, is categorized as Krautrock, but it can appeal even if the listener's sound preference converges more towards a classic prog with a British flavor. Some moments tend to be close to Krautrock experiments, but never in a too harsh way; instead, they are able to evoke soft and almost optimistic emotions. The album's title and the group's name clearly refer to the reading of works by Aldous Huxley (writer and philosopher, 1894–1963), whose most famous novel is titled Brave New World. As for the music, it is almost exclusively instrumental, presenting a mix of folk, jazz, rock, and psychedelia. The sound is rather soft, with some instrumental effects predominantly accompanied by percussion that immerses the listener in psych-electronic atmospheres with a touch of the lysergic. The members skillfully master their instruments and certainly come from a background of jazz study. The album opens with a prologue, and the following tracks are titled: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta canterburyan – Lenina with an Andersonian flute – the bizarre Soma - Halpais Corn Dance, and before closing, we hear the suite The End, which is certainly the most interesting part of the album, seventeen minutes of lysergic guitars, flutes, and saxophones emphasizing what Huxley wrote in his most dystopian works. The closure is titled Epilogue and is a brief reading of some passages by Aldous Huxley. An album to rediscover.