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You'd be forgiven if off the top of your head you can't name many Montana bands - which, perversely, is what helps Donovan's Brain stand out. The long-running brainchild (ahem) of one Ron Sanchez, DB comes up for air every few years when studio rat Sanchez has a break from his production schedule, with key releases thus far appearing on the Get Hip and Career labels (the latter operated by Sanchez and his good buddy Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman). It's been four years since the last record, the two-CD A Defeat of Echoes, and this time around he's got a star-studded roster of friends pitching in, among them Tek, Roy Loney, Bobby Sutliff (Windbreakers), Mike Musburger (Posies, Fastbacks) and Jason Lytle (Grandaddy).

"Psychedelia" being an action verb for the Brain, longtime fans of the band won't be ill-served by the baker's-dozen tunes here. Fires Which Burnt Brightly kicks off with a lush slice of jangledom from Sanchez' pen: "The Same Mistakes," with its 12-string, mellotron and tambourine, could pass for an obscure track from the British Nuggets box - or perhaps an outtake from those psychedelic psunspotters themselves, the Dukes of Stratosphear. Another early highlight is Sanchez' "Broken Glass Corner," which pirouettes through the looking glass via a detour down Magical Mystery Tour lane (what's that Jane Fonda namecheck all about, Ron?), while Sutliff's chiming, pulsing "You Gotta Go Now" is powerpop cut, not all that surprisingly, from Windbreakers cloth.

Tracks 7-13 comprise what's essentially "side two" of the album and Sanchez describes them as a song cycle with a theme concerning the "loss of important people and institutions in our lifetime." There's a cinematic instrumental opener, "After the Main Sequence," followed by guitarist Colter Langan's caustic, cautionary garage cruncher "Come For The Sun," a meditation upon colonialism and manifest destiny. Tek's ominous rocker "Vanished" was apparently slated, initially, for Radio Birdman's reunion album, but here, the inclusion of a female vocal foil for Tek gives it an X or Jefferson Airplane-styled vibe. And the Sanchez-Tek closing track, "Thinking About Neutrons," with its Thomas Dolby-like whorl of keyboards and recited vocals, is inspired looniness at its best; you won't think about neutrons in quite the same way again (and of course we all think of neutrons from time to time, don't we?).

Consume with a tab or a smoke at your discretion, but the main thing is to relax, sit back, and turn off the brain - because in this case, it's Donovan's Brain that's in charge.

Standout Tracks: "You Gotta Go Now," "After the Main Sequence," "Vanished" FRED MILLS