Schizo-Brainiac - A labyrinthine exploration in music

Over the years my music scribbling has led to me accumulating a disparate collection of musical associates as Farcebook "friends". Some go on to become solid acquaintances, and, Heavens forfend, I've even met some of them out there in the real world.

The majority remain largely anonymous after the initial reason for connection has been long forgotten, and now that FB in its wisdom doesn't actually let you see a lot of what even close friends put up there, nevermind those on the "Acquaintances" or "Restricted" lists, it often comes as a surprise when a name pops up in your Newsfeed you have no recollection of. Usually these random hits from "friends" removed by several degrees of separation are of no consequence and passed over and forgotten.

Occasionally a gem of a post comes along to make you sit up and take notice. One such appeared today, and it contained a link to the Soundcloud page of an American gent going by the name of Solo Goodspeed aka Schizo-Brainiac. His profile contains the following choice quotes:

"SchizoBrainiac is a source of musical alternatives, with a tangent for eclecticism...It is helpful if you bring a very open mind (and not much in the way of expectations) to the exploration of these tracks, and if you have a bit of an off-kilter sense of humor, all the better."

...and...

"...Life is too short to merely exist.

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist" - some guy named Picasso"

You can't argue with that, but it does not prepare you for the vast scope of the music this musical polymath has produced, all since 2009 apparently. He describes his music as falling into the "Soundtrack" genre and there are six distinctly different and thoroughly absorbing sets on offer, each with a short written intro by the composer to give the listener some idea of what to expect. We have:

















...and two more that do not have embed links; An Oral Condition (original songs) and Residual Influence (cover versions). That last one includes songs by XTC, Gentle Giant, Snakefinger, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Captain Beefheart, and Pete Seeger amongst others. Those influences only go a part of the way to describing what Schizo-Brainiac is about, but anyone who has the chops, not to mention the balls to cover Beefheart, Gentle Giant and Mahavishnu is obviously harbouring no little talent. The Beefheart cover is quite mad and makes the original sound almost tame. It is quite brilliant, by the way.

Thanks to Tesla Manaf Effendi, whoever and wherever you are, for popping up in my Farcebook Newsfeed with this incredible music!

Now, where's that device for stopping the space-time warpy thing for about a month so that I may catch up with all this?...