Joyride is effectively one of three albums by Brotherhood, As with the group's other albums, it was recorded for
RCA Victor, Described by Volk as a "kind of
psychedelic adventure into Never-Never Land", on which the group "did some really bizarre things",
Joyride built on the sonic experimentation of Brotherhood's 1968 eponymous album, which liberally employed
sound effects. Dubbed an "aural portrait of the darker side of
Los Angeles life", the album features six compositions rather than 'true' songs, with a generally unsettling nature – such as on "Love Sketch" or the lengthy, cacophonous "Lost Angel Proper St." – that brings irony to the album title. It was inspired by
the Mothers of Invention's sprawling
Uncle Meat (1969). The record originated when the group recorded a "musical free-for-all" with their friends; they described it as their first "spontaneous
jam session" as well as the first time they employed
the studio's control console as a musical instrument. The title track and "Lost Angel Proper St." originate from the session, with flute, dialogue and sound effects
overdubbed the following day, while "The Empire of Light", featuring organ, piano and console, was recorded in one take in the night. "Love Sketch" was intended an exercise in new recording techniques which "can be best heard on a true
stereo player", while "Childhood's End" and "Childsong" are
musique concrète exercises; the former resolves into "triumphant" guitar chords, while the latter is an electronic
tone poem recorded at the Dixie Canyon School in
San Fernando Valley and the 95th Street School in Los Angeles. In the liner notes, RCA, Ernie Altschuler,
Joe Reisman were credited for encouraging Brotherhood to record the album. Overall,
Joyride employs
noisy shards of guitar, ticking sounds,
spoken word passages and "other jarring effects." The title track – credited to fifteen writers – is a one-chord
sound collage "with organ, woodwinds, percussion, guitars and bass, punctuated by spoken interjections", while "Childsong", another sound collage, combines
celesta,
wind chimes and
flute recorder with the sounds of children and Volk's childhood singing. The recording of the younger Volk is one of him singing the songs "
On a Slow Boat to China" and "If You Call Everybody Darling", taped several months before his third birthday when his mother took him to a record cutter inside a trailer at a local carnival. He said he sang the songs "impeccably correct, both melody and lyrics", and credited the experience of hearing his voice played back to him with beginning his "musical journey ... with a bang." In a 1998 interview with
Sundazed Music, he elaborated: Volk said that after receiving his
test pressing for the album, he was playing "Childsong" when his mother walked in and heard the sampled refrain from his childhood recording, which made her start crying, a memory which he said "still manages to choke him up." ==Release and reception==