In the heyday of the vinyl LP, before the glut of CDs and the soulless mega-ultra-superstores that purvey them, the arrival of a new album by a rock artist was a much-anticipated event . Any fan could tell you the date that the latest by Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles or the Stones was coming out. Many people reading this don’t share our memories of sitting with friends, examining every inch of the record itself for secret slogans (Zeppelin used to carve slogans on the vinyl first editions in the runoff groove next to the label), and poring over the cover artwork, as well as the lyrics and liner notes (if present). Some album covers would find prominent places in our homes. When we discovered that the cover to Cream’s Wheels Of Fire came to life under a strobe light and black light, every hippie rushed out to buy it and place it somewhere that the lights would hit it. Album sleeves were a source of fascination second only to the music itself.

Such intense scrutiny of your average CD cover, however, generally requires a magnifying glass. Few designers of CD packages have had the imagination, or possibly the budget, to overcome the limitations of the new "compact" format. The covers long ago quit making a statement, and box sets often squander the opportunity for inventiveness in favor of booklets that are more academic than fun. No one is going to display a multi-CD set any more than they would your average non-"coffee-table" book -- until now. On presentation alone, Brain In A Box scores an easy 10. Before you hear a single tune, the package will assume the place of an art object in your room. Shaped like a metal science-fiction doohickey with knobs and switches and, of course, a floating hologram brain on three sides, it is one terrific-looking set.

For reasons unknown, five years ago James Austin and Hugh Brown embarked on the ultimate science fiction set. Why isn’t too clear -- five years or so ago most kids were lapping up the likes of Melrose Place and Dawson’s Creek, and there was no way to tell that science fiction would hit a popularity level with teens beyond even the fad of the 1950s. One has to presume they were going after the hardcore sci-fi fan and didn’t realize how big the genre would be by the time the set came out. So they enlisted Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury and put together a fun picture-packed book to accompany five CDs. Steve Vance and Austin art-directed the package, and the result is a must-have for collectors, DJs and mix-tapers/CD burners who search for cool material to intersperse with their more conventional selections, as well as for fans of science fiction and psychotronic movies and television in general. What Brain In A Box gives us all is endless hours of fun with the book, individual CDs and box itself.

The CDs are split up into five categories: movie themes, TV themes, pop music, lounge tunes and novelty songs. Anyone out there who remembers the record albums for sale in Famous Monsters and Castle Of Frankenstein will love the first CD in the package, featuring such titles as War Of The Worlds, It Came From Outer Space and Forbidden Planet as well as the more recent The Matrix, Mars Attacks! and Robocop. TV themes include My Favorite Martian and The X-Files, with everything from Astro Boy to Lost In Space in between. The pop CD has everyone from Spirit to Lothar And The Hand People playing tunes immersed in science fiction. Any CD with Stan Ridgway (remember Wall of Voodoo?) and The Ventures can’t be all bad. The lounge CD has Les Baxter, but it also has Sun Ra(!). The big surprise on the novelty disc isn’t Leonard Nimoy -- heck, you’d expect to find him. No, it’s Ella Fitzgerald singing an anti-earth, pro-space-alien number called "Two Little Men In A Flying Saucer". Louis Prima shows up to sing "Beep! Beep!" and George Clinton pops up with Parliament to do "Unfunky UFO".

Brain In A Box is a labor of love from Rhino with over 100 tunes, a 200-page hardcover book, and hours of entertainment. A must for psychotronic fans!