The Circle of Dust Reissues Continue With 1994’s Brainchild

Brainchild built on the industrial sound of Circle of Dust’s self-titled debut but added a heavier, more guitar-based aspect.
Brainchild Circle Of Dust

Right on schedule, the next Circle of Dust reissue — 1994’s Brainchild — has been officially announced. And Brainchild, like so many things related to Circle of Dust, has a convoluted history.

Originally released by R.E.X. Records as Mindwarp, the album was the debut of Brainchild, a collaboration between Scott Albert and R.E.X. Records founder Doug Mann. When R.E.X. Records pushed Albert to release a new Circle of Dust album, he renamed Mindwarp to Brainchild and re-released it under the Circle of Dust name. As Albert explained in an old interview with HM Magazine:

The real reason it seems like the same CDs were released and re-released and re-released and re-released was mainly because of the Distribution deal REX had secured with Relativity. Finally, I was going to have my music in the real world. We needed to get a release out pronto and we all felt that Brainchild was the strongest CD. Just one problem… Brainchild was a project and was never intended to be a Circle of Dust CD. After weighing our options we decided that since this was going into a totally new market, who would know or care that “Circle of Dust — Brainchild” used to be “Brainchild — Mindwarp”?

Brainchild built on the industrial sound of Circle of Dust’s self-titled debut but added a heavier, more guitar-based aspect that brought a metal edge to songs like “Telltale Crime” and “Prayers of a Dead Man.” Lyrically, the album was darker and more dystopic, and addressed topics like government corruption (“Telltale Crime”), religious hypocrisy (“Enshrined”), and abortion (“Descend”).

The Brainchild reissue features remastered versions of the original tracks, while the “deluxe” edition includes several remixes, b-sides, demos, and live recordings plus a cover of Steve Taylor’s “Am I in Sync?” (which was originally recorded for the I Predict a Clone tribute album).

The Brainchild reissue will be released on April 29, 2016.

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