#motorpsycho blissard

[toastedcinnamonflakes]

My bedtable contents

[db-reviews]

#180 - The Motorpnakotic Fragments - Motorpsycho (2014)

By technicality this is not a full fledged Motorpsycho album, but RYM counts it as one, so I’ll take what I can get.

After the release of Behind The Sun, Motorpsycho decided to hold a promotional event through exclusive pre-orders for a new album, and after 400 pre-orders were made the album would not be able to be pre-ordered again. Afterwards, each week the ones who pre-ordered the album will receive two songs in the form of a single. It took about 4 weeks before anyone could fully get their hands on this record fully, with 4 singles to boot. This would create the complete collection that is The Motorpnakotic Fragments, or The Motorpnakotic Manuscripts.

Was this 4 single and 4 week release pattern worth it? Not really, in my opinion. What you get here is to the similar vein of Behind The Sun and Still Life With Eggplant, though with a slight—late 90s indie rock twang to it all, which gives the band’s psych prog output a bit more of a unique flair on this collection of songs. You get a good amount of jams on here, not too long, not too short, with each song creating this uniquely old and noisy feeling, like a mix between 90s noise rock bands like Unwound and Sonic Youth, with a 60s style psych rock performance of Jimi Hendrix and early Amon Duul II, creating this rather interesting experience that I enjoy, and is the album’s strong suit.

I do think, though, this album never quite holds those big and interesting Motorpsycho moments that other albums have. It makes this feel much weaker in comparison to stuff like Let Them Eat Cake and Blissard, which had those moments in quite good amounts. Here, there are no moments that feel like Motorpsycho giving their all, which is rather disappointing because those moments are exactly why I love this band’s brand of prog rock. I do not expect them to create Death Defying Unicorn 2 or Still life With Eggplant 2 for this release, but I want a little more out of these already good songs.

This is an interesting release project for the band. It is unique, creative, and experimental. However, what is on here, whilst good, would work better for other albums in the band’s discography. It is not a bad album, but there are much better from this band out there.

[visualtones]

Motorpsycho - Blissard

1996

[theexiledguitarist]

On the road

[db-reviews]

#162 - Little Lucid Moments - Motorpsycho (2008)

After the highly ambitious album of Black Hole / Blank Canvas, Motorpsycho, 2 years later, would do hard work on their next outing, that being a highly prog rock sounding record that allowed to not only embrace their more progressive sentimentalities thoroughly, but also change entirely for the next half of their discography, and for the better, as for this record, Little Lucid Moments, they decided to go really big for what they wanted to do.

This album is composed of 4 really long songs, most notably the 21 minute epic of Suite: Little Lucid Moments, which comprises four parts that are all jams that intermingle within the band’s more progressive frontiers. I’d say all of these songs are crafted in such a way that no matter how many listens I go through with this album, I never get bored. I think the band going for a huge and more jammy sound that bands like Hawkwind, and Amon Duul II composed in the 70s lets this breathe an entirely new life into Motorpsycho that I felt was highly needed since Blissard, but also in a way that feels very Motoresque.

The highlight for this album, for me, is the big epic. Just how they can make such a jammy and free form song into this glorious suite that takes homage with psych rock, space rock, prog rock, and krautrock, and not only merge them together in a seriously impressive and vibrant way, but also for them to play some seriously complicated music for so long is just impressive. I just love how this band can shape their sounds in such creative ways. Hell, I think a jam of this caliber may be the source of inspiration for many neo-psych bands like King Gizzard and Thee Oh Sees, as both those bands would go on to create huge jam epics like The Dripping Tap and Henchlock.

The other three tracks of Year Zero, She Left on the Sun Ship, and The Alchemyst are also extremely good in what they do with a more heavy psych rock structure. Heck, I think Year Zero, at the beginning, has some post rock ideology within it that sounds very much like Mogwai or Don Caballero. It just shows the band is more than a proggy psych rock band from Norway as they can do many more genres too.

There are some artists that slowly change their sounds to where their old one is non-existent, but I think Motorpsycho really does a good job in making their records feel entirely new whilst also showcasing their love for their more heavier sounds of the past. Little Lucid Moments shows that in spades, and shows that, while the band is away from their more grunge ideals of Lobotimizer and Demon Box, they are still the band to go for when you want those big meaty chords, or those powerful jams. It is the band’s first ultimatum of a record since Timothy’s Monster, and I think it is an essential record for any psych and prog rock fan. It may not be the longest in terms of tracklisting, but each song is their own gold mine of beautiful rubies and diamonds for you to spelunk your way through.

5/5

[db-reviews]

#142 - Trust Us - Motorpsycho (1998)

This is the last Motorpsycho album they released in the 90s. Released one year after Angels and Daemons at Play and two promotional EPs, this album would be considered one of the band's best works in their hectic starting decade, and it's easy to see why many people, especially Prog rock fans, gravitate towards this album. I think it's because it released at the perfect time in the 90s when Prog rock was starting to get back into popularity with acts like Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater, and with Motorpsycho's glamorous mix of Prog rock, hard rock, folk, and jazz, it would make sense people would find a huge attachment to this album.

For me, Trust Us is an interesting record, and quite a hefty one too. If, say, Blissard was an experiment in composition, and Angels and Daemons was an experiment on releasing, then Trust Us is an experiment on what the band wanted to be in their next decades to come as this marks the band's turning point to tried and true Prog rock music. They dabbled in it earlier in the decade, but here we get full on Prog rock music that sounds really good.

What I think this record has a good hand in is the amount of variety you get on here. You get some slower movements like Vortex Surfer and Coventry Boy, but also some really hard hitting psychedelic heavies like Psychonaut and Mantrick Muffin Stomp. Really, this album is one huge collage of various artistic examples the band has nods and winks to. From hard rock, to jazz, to psych, to folk, basically what the band would be highly known for can be found on this album in spades, and I really love the album for it. It is like going to a museum and looking at different paintings by the same artist. They all look different, but you know they are made by some artist from like Sweden or something who was a painting prophet at an early age but died at the age of 20 due to a falling anvil in their grandfather's workshop. It is really special in a weird way.

Though, like a museum, it can be a little tiring, standing and walking around, and also not every painting will be as amazing as some others. This album is long, and as someone who generally likes hour-long albums, this one feels a bit too long for me. With a lot of songs on here, some ranging to the 10 minute mark, it starts to feel tedious sometimes, and I feel as though that is the album's biggest weakness. This is an album that is packed to the brim, but it feels like it is in a small box. To be honest, I feel like some tracks on here could be cut down, like some of the tracks that were on the two EPs that were released prior to this, Ozone and Hey Jane. Personally, the big amount of stuff on here feels a tad overwhelming, especially with the harder stuff. You kinda have to be attuned to what the band wants you to get into this giant album.

I think, though, Trust Us has a lot of good things about it to where it outweighs the bad stuff. The songs are tightly knit, heck even more so than prior releases. You can tell they had a clear idea and wanted to expand on it each waking moment, and I love that. I love Motorpsycho for their prowess of song making, and I never get bored of their music even after listening to them for a long time. They are just that good.

That is the best thing about this album, it isn't boring by any means. You'll get a lot of stuff out of this, though it is an album that is quite a bit too big. It's a museum of various artistic paintings by one artist. It is a very nice experience but one that'll leave your feet feeling very tired. If you liked Blissard or Angels and Daemons then this album is a great treat for you.

4/5

[db-reviews]

#139 - Angels and Daemons At Play - Motorpsycho (1997)

After their strange venture to more concrete songwriting prowess on Blissard, Motorpsycho would go back to more jammy songs for their next studio album. Unlike previous sonic experiments, the band decided to experiment with releases. Instead of just releasing their next studio workings, the band would instead release three EPs, all with various feels of music, and release them one by one with limited copies, and then combine those EPs together to create their 6th studio work. These three EPs, Babyscooter, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, and Lovelight all contribute to various feelings of this 50 minute extension of music in the Motorpsycho lineage.

If I had to describe Angels and Daemons At Play with one word, it’d be dense. This is a very densely packed album, with each EP contributing to the album’s general sonicscape in various ways.

The Baby Scooter EP is the introduction to the album, having the familiar, winding, and verbose sound of their more Psychedelic Alternative Rock efforts from Timothy’s Monster or their Manmower EP. What I like about this part of the album is that it holds no punches and just gets right to the chase immediately. It knows what you want, and it knows how to give it. A really solid foot forward within the band’s usual sound, while also doing some different things like emphasizing slower songs and more textural experiences, which I think absolutely helps with the feel for the album as a whole.

The real gemstone of the album for me and probably for other Progheads out there is the Have Spacesuit Will Travel parts of the album. On vinyl releases the band does add in the full EP into the workings, which end up making the album an hour and more long, but since I am stuck with the streaming version, the only song off that EP is Un Chien D’espace, but that’ll just have to do. Despite its singular song status, this is absolutely my favorite part of the album. This thirteen minute journey through more raw, heavy, and acidic feelings of music without it feeling overly drawn out or way too forced in the album’s general atmosphere makes this an extremely great song. Furthermore, this is their first TRUE progressive effort. I know I said in the Timothy’s Monster review that Timothy’s Monster was the band’s first progressive rock album, but in terms of sonically, Angels and Daemons At Play with the Have Spacesuit Will Travel parts really takes that cake.

Lastly is the Lovelight parts of the album, and this is probably the weakest EP of the album sadly. After the psychedelic wonderscape of Baby Scooter and the progressive rock beauty of Have Spacesuit Will Travel, this EP doesn’t deliver on a sound as well. It has an effort in a more pop punkish and general alt rock sound that bands like Green Day and The Offspring would bathe in, though Motorpsycho does try some newer things to keep that style of music on this EP to feel a little more adventurous than some efforts from those bands I have mentioned (Though Green Day did make some long songs on American Idiot a few years later.). What this EP lacks in is the eccentric energy previous EPs have, and even when there is energy, I never felt like the band was honing in on the music to make it truly special, but rather just playing for the sake of playing. I never found this part of the album to be entirely special, and I cannot help but find it really lacking in huge material that I’d be excited to hear again from the band’s efforts moving forward. Sad that this otherwise great album ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

Even despite the last EP, this is still another great effort from the band’s discography. It is kind of like a more streamlined, polished, and less heavy Demon Box with each part of the album contributing to improving and learning more of the band’s sounds. The vinyl edition is definitely the best way to experience the album, but the streaming and cd editions are also perfectly fine too. Another great effort from Norway’s best band.

4.5/5

[db-reviews]

#135 - Blissard - Motorpsycho (1996)

Previous albums in the Motorpsycho lineage were experimental in direction, with songs being very jammy and less compositionally structured in a lot of ways. This fact gave the band a more D.I.Y feel to their music which I liked. However after moving to a different label after the release of The Tussler, Motorpsycho decided to create an album that experimented less of brainstorming and jamming with a focus of songwriting, composing, and working more on their newly founded Psychedelic Indie Rock sound they discovered in Timothy’s Monster. As a result, we would get Blissard in 1996.

There are a lot of things I like about this album, but there are also some things I am too fond of. I will say, for starters on the things I like about this album, that album cover really does help the album a lot in my opinion. I think besides the modern trio of The Tower, The Crucible, and The All Is One (which I’ll review soon), this is probably my favorite Motorpsycho album cover. The blurry image of a Mickey Mouse doll in a weirdly cropped black square with a scribble (probably a signature) on top is so jarring that the more I look at it the more I begin to love it. It gives off the perfect sense for this album, being this blurry idea that I do not even think the band would know how it’d turn out, similar to how, say, Walt Disney had the idea for Mickey Mouse in the 1920s.

The result of the more compositional effort on this album is a more structured, slightly pop sounding idea for the band to tackle, though some songs like True Middle and S.T.G are slightly out of favor with this sort of pop mythos the album creates. What I like about this is that, because of this, it is a very easy album to get into. There are a lot of hooks in each song that makes it so this record can catch your attention, whether it is with the hard pounding Sinful, Wind-Born or the expertly crafted Greener. Each song as a whole gives this accessible, but still experimental energy.

As a whole piece, I think this is the most structured, and consistent Motorpsycho album to date, with even tracks like True Middle carrying the same weight as the last song, and the song afterwards doing the same. It veers slightly away from this consistency in certain moments, but overall I think this is the most consistently crafted album Motorpsycho has ever produced.

However I think some of the charm that previous Motorpsycho albums had are lost in the consistent and compositional direction. I liked the more brainstorming work that Demon Box and Timothy’s Monster provided, and such having it be lost in this record, while just for a moment, is pretty sad in my opinion. My favorite thing about Motorpsycho jamming works is that even though the band is merely improv, their sense of structure helps those songs to feel more worthwhile. Here, that sense is lost and while I think every song here (minus the last track) are very good, they do not have that Motorpsycho charm to them.

Though, I think the album has a lot more improvements than faults from their original sound. The more effective song writing, lyricism, and composition does help the band to create more profound and powerful music that they’ll implement more in later releases. This album is the band’s maturity album, growing more highly tuned with their newly founded sounds and styles and as a result a turning point for the band’s expertly crafted career.

While I think as a try and true Motorpsycho album this is pretty weak, but as a compositional and structured effort this album is very good in what the group wanted to do. While I cannot say this is an absolute must listen for any Motorpsycho fan, it is a definitive turning point for the band that shouldn’t be overlooked. Like Mickey Mouse, sometimes an experiment can be a gemstone in a rough time.

4/5