Motorpsycho

First exposure to them was Liitle Lucid. Great. Thinking I should take a chronological approach to the albums

For those with less time and patience to make it through their 18+ album discography, they released a concise two disc collection last year, Supersonic Scientists - A Young Person´s Guide To Motorpsycho that's a nice intro.

Since you like LLM, I'd recommend checking out Heavy Metal Fruit (2010) next, before going back to the beginning. Demon Box (1993) and Timothy's Monster (1994) are quite different.

Word, thanks

I think I really love this band

"Evernine" from Trust Us is the only song I wanna hear today, over and over again

http://motorpsycho.no/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/the_tower_motorpsycho-1024x1024.jpg

Friends!

On September 8 2017 we release our new album ‘The Tower’ on Rune Grammofon / Stickman Records. It is a double LP, a double CD, and will also be available digitally.

This is how we got here:

http://motorpsycho.no/2017/07/the-tower/

change of drummer and producer hopefully will do them some good, their description got me hyped for this

was playing some MP when my Dad was around, I think "Whip That Ghost" was on and he said "this is really great, you have good taste" then "Psychonaut" came on and he was like "what the hell is this? put that other band on"

haha

I've had similar experiences with Ween too

yeh ween is even more varied

give dad Phanerothyme for his birthday, that's their ultimate dadrock album I reckon!

new album cover looking promising. Double album.. not so sure.

both of them did made surprisingly great country records too. I think that's what links them together, in my mind

kinda glad this one's a double since so many of their great 90's ones were. probably means there will be a few throwaway bits but that's the psychos for ya

the fairly recent Black Hole/Blank canvas was pretty meh though... (not be a bummer to the party).

and almost all MP records have at least 1 or 2 great tracks, so.. this one should have 4

stoked. other double albums (death-defying unicorn oh yeah) have been dope

could I get a few POX's? I keep wanting to get into these guys but their catalog is so damn daunting

Generally think the four record run of Demon Box-Timothy's Monster-Blissard-Angels and Daemons at Play is unfuckwithable. Tough to single out songs from those albums though, as they are such a part of the album their on.

Would have to think long and hard about a POX.

^dead on. Been listening to those albums nonstop lately.

Sometimes when bands have an overwhelmingly huge catalog I start with a mix based on the songs they play live the most:

https://www.setlist.fm/stats/motorpsycho-63d62abb.html

I would add Trust Us to the run Le Bateau Ivre just described, such a massive experience. Also, Black Hole/Blank Canvas is great, one of their most underrated albums. Curious about the new one, a friend of mine saw them live just last week at the Krach Am Bach festival and he said the new songs he heard were great, a lot heavier than the previous few albums.

And just for fun, my Motorpsycho POX:

Watersound
Pills powders and passion plays
Hey Jane
Starmelt/Lovelight
The golden core
The other fool
Sonic teenage Guinevere
Uberwagner (or a billion bubbles in mind)
Triggerman
The ocean in her eyes

...this feels way too short, I could easily add another ten.

I just heard "Starmelt/Lovelight" for the first time on the Supersonic Scientists comp last year. I guess that was on the Lovelight EP -- amazing that with all those albums people can single out a cut from an EP!

It's also on Angels And Daemons At Play. If I were to single out an EP track it would be Mad Sun. Unbelievable that they didn't put that one on a regular album.

"Step Inside" from the 8 Soothing Songs for Rut EP is great, I wish they'd included that on Demon Box instead of the muffled and brooding version we got

amazing how these dudes were able to whip so many pitch-perfect pop songs out of their asses, unusual for such a jam-heavy band. Angels and Daemons has 3 - "Walking on the Water", "Starmelt/Lovelight", and "Like Always".

can't even begin a POX right now but "Sinful, Wind-Borne" and "Evernine" would definitely be on it

I'd definitely add Trust Us to the classic run of albums.
Speaking of pop songs, it has their very best, 'Hey Jane'.

I kinda lost track of them after 'Let Them Eat Cake', but I'll check out at least BHBC based on the recommendations above.

And FnB, I had never thought of the setlist trick - that is one to remember!

I haven't heard BHBC in years, but I don't remember it as among their best. But you should check out Little Lucid Moments, Heavy Metal Fruit and last years Here Be Monsters (And the 12 inch with the title track).

Makes me very happy this thread does

xp - Will do!

Glad to see MP get some appreciation here! I've been a fan since seeing them play for 30 people in a dingy punk rock shoebox on the Demon Box tour. The post-BHBC work never really resonated with me, but this new one sounds interesting, change of drummer might just be the thing they needed.

Anyways here's my quick & dirty POX in no particular order:

Walking on the Water
Psychonaut
Radiance Freq.
Un Chien d'Espace
S'Numbness
Ozone
Serpentine
The Slow Phaseout
Sinful, wind-borne
Starmelt/Lovelight

You can listen to a new song here: http://www.visions.de/news/27250/Motorpsycho-streamen-neuen-Song-A-S-F-E

Rune Grammofon wouldn't give me a promo because it was not officially released yet in North America, hence the pricey $31+ import price on Amazon. I ordered from Stickman which was better, about $23 USD. I won't get the CDs for at least a week but it's just started floating in the c-ether and is on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/0BqXam3ZWK3d4h8SIHmxMI

Enjoy!

Reviews:
http://teamrock.com/review/2017-09-06/motorpsycho-the-tower-album-review
http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2017/08/28/motorpsycho-the-tower-review-premiere/

http://fastnbulbous.com/motorpsycho-the-tower/

Reprtedly their only 2017 UK show (London in October) was pretty sparsely attended. A bit surprising to me and I might have made more of an effort to go if I'd had an inkling it wouldn't be guaranteed busy.

Seems their European popularity doesn't extend across the Channel.

That seems about right. I read a lot about how important they are to the Norwegian scene and how their stuff often ranks amongst Norway's best music, which gives me the impression that they aren't very popular anywhere else. Kind of funny to see discussion threads which are half "just discovered these guys and they're amazing, why aren't they more popular?" and half "what are you talking about, we've loved them for years!"

On the Tower, “In Every Dream” is very good. I couldn’t really get with the slower acoustic stuff on the album. At times the singer just sounds kind of cheesy.

Apparently there's something that isn't working for them beyond Europe. The only lists this album made besides mine was #10 on Prog Magazine's, and The Needledrop's 15 Underrated episode.

http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-17/#albums
http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-12-20/2017-the-prog-critics-choice

https://youtu.be/T0TP8Ts__sQ?t=10m26s

They're reissuing their Roadwork series of live albums on vinyl (with CDs in the packaging), and adding a new set. Here's the rundown:

Roadwork Vol. 1 (1999) 2LP/1CD
The Other Fool
A K9 Suite
Feel
Super/Wheel
You Lied
Black to Comm
Words of Wisdom
Vortex Surfer

Roadwork Vol. 2 (2000) 2LP/1CD
Olemanns Kornett
Grindstone
The Wheel
Finske Skoger
Dreams
The Golden Core
Limbo
Nå

Roadwork Vol. 3 (2002) 2LP/1CD *originally released as part of the Haircuts DVD*
Stained Glass
Custer's Last Stand (One More Daemon)
Starmelt/Lovelight
577
Little Ricky Massenburg
Hogwash
STG
Neverland

Roadwork Vol. 5 (2018) 3LP/2CD
Ship of Fools
Sleepwalking
Lacuna/Sunrise
Manmower
Köln
Un Chien d'Espace
Taifun

Listened to Roadwork Vol. 5 this morning while doing laundry. It's really nice. Other than a little two-minute interlude, the shortest song is 11 minutes, and the longest is over 30.

oh nice, can't wait to get my hands on it. I only have 1 & 2. 1 is a classic, of course. I kinda love 2 as well though I guess the premise of "three different bands meet each other (presumably) for the first time" may be sort of a turn off. it's pretty wild though.

okay, I've got Vol 3 now and it's great. the "four Norsemen" are presumably the trio + a keyboard player, which does give them the dimension to play something like "Stained Glass", but otherwise they kinda stay away from the folky/rootsy stuff, instead kicking out the jams as they always do. I mean, holy shit, that 20-minute "Hogwash" is something else. And followed up by "STG" ? Wow. Its kinda cool in that there is so much jamming and improvising that a lot of times you forget what song you're listening to. Which is the way I wish more live albums were. Great stuff.

Yeah, I wrote about the whole set at the end of July. I don't think I'm ever gonna dive all the way into their catalog, but there's a lot on these live records that I like a lot.

holy shit this song is good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pi5jvttuWY&list=PLqK4NODjKGfTqpfIqrDlb-x3o08_5Y3Bm&index=12

link is dead

try this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pi5jvttuWY

those "[Artist Name] - topic" accounts are strange

That is lush, thank you.

nice

^ Good times indeed.

Somehow I've only just seen that a new one was announced. Pre orders already shipping apparently.

These guys and Autechre putting the lie to the idea that Gen X are slackers.

heres another one, I really like this side of the band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1Q6ojc5Wa4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4cFV8z4Yxs

One of their best album openers imo.

There's the band's dedication to constantly producing new (epic) material, the fans' generosity in sharing good recordings, but more than that just the fact that concerts are happening at all somewhere in the world.

https://www.motorpsychodelicclips.com/node/329

I listened to Roadworks 4 a day after the Can Live in Stuttgart set and it occurred to me that these bands have kind of a similar approach to their shows

listening to BH/BC and LLM right back-to-back is like a masterclass in what you can do once you acquire a great drummer

Funny thing is that bass player Bent played the drums on BH/BC, on that record Motorpsycho consisted of just Bent (vocals, bass, drums) and Snah (guitar, vocals). LLM was Kenneth Kapstadt's debut. Both are phenomenal records.

yea he does a fine job but the songs they wrote were much more straightforward and "on rails" whereas on LLM they could constantly shift tempo and time signature. they also play a lot faster in certain parts. I mean you're right they're both great, but that's MP for you, everything they do works

The Crucible is such a great album. they've morphed into some amalgam of Wetton-era King Crimson and Pawn Hearts-era Van der Graaf Generator. their recent albums rule so much.

wait is "the all is one" about how Motorpsycho is frustrated with The Discourse?

now i'm imagining "the plague of lighthouse keepers" but the lyrics are just jamie hood's "against discourse"

https://www.tsqnow.online/post/against-discourse-the-chaser-myth-the-un-making-of-a-modern-woman-by-jamie-hood

yes, everything i talk about _does_ somehow become trans shit within fifteen seconds

Wasn't sure about more acoustic based Motorpsycho at this point, given how much I've loved their recent records, but Yay! is really good! Didn't realize until after I heard it that Reine Fiske produced it - which explains some Dungen vibes I got (esp on "Hotel Daedalus").

I've had a hard time getting into this one for some reason. Fiske has been on most of the recent albums too i believe.

wait is "the all is one" about how Motorpsycho is frustrated with The Discourse?

i have no idea what this means.

I think she's talking about the title track which I'll just say are perhaps not the best they've ever written

New self-titled double album incoming!

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4109670075_10.jpg

After two pandemically conditioned ‘reaction’ albums –Yay! (2023) and Neigh!! (2024) -a few non-album singles and a compilation album, a downsized and sleek Motorpsychois back where we all know and love them, with an epic, sprawling double album, filled to the brim with inventive, organic and ecstatic rock-based music. Rejoyce Psychonaut!

This eponymously titled, 11 song work, has exactly as much variety & diversity, accord and discord, as one expects from a band that has released a few albums before, and that these days must be regarded as an institution in European rock. From concise 3min-something pop-rockers, to 20mins-plus progressive epics, via acoustic intimacies and psychedelic wig-outs, this is concentrated Motorpsychosis: commenced Rebis, countdown initiated. Ever closer. Ever sharper…

Since the traditional 3 or 4 piece rock band seems to be a dying breed these days, and MP always was a band in flux anyway, a new pragmatic era has begun in the Psychoverse. The band has, in what one might call alchemical terms, been ‘dissolved and purified’, and is by now again reduced to the core two founding members HMR & BS. This is nothing new, it has happened a few times before, but these days they are also the owners and creators of the record company NFGS, which is now the hub of all recorded band activity, and Motorpsycho marks the final severance of existing ties to other labels for the first time in 35 years. If ‘freedom is free of the need to be free’, this is it. Yikes!

The minimalist title of the album is then not just easy to remember, it’s also a statement: a new era has begun in the Psychoverse, a state of affairs reflected in execution and details as well as title, if not perhaps, in ambition or size: “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam” *.
This is a time of new beginnings for a band that has spent two years consolidating and reseting before charging ahead anew on a new path, trumpets blaring (…and trumpets don’t come much more blaring in the Psychoverse than with this grandiloquent hyperbole. Good fun! ). New day rising indeed.

The core band was adroitly helped by a gaggle of greats from all over the Scandinavian musical landscape on these recordings: drummers Ingvald Vassbø and Olaf Olsen, string arranger/violinist Mari Persen, vocalist Thea Grant, and -as usual -honorary psycho, brother Reine Fiske, were all fellow travellers on this musical journey.
Motorpsycho was co-produced by the band and Deathprod, and mixed by Andrew Scheps.

Motorpsycho are not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones that do what they do.

*: [ “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam,” or “An old parrot doesn’t mind the stick.” ]

Motorpsycho is out on Det Nordenfjeldske Grammofonselskab 21.02.25

Formats: Digital, 2LP & CD

01. Lucifer, Bringer of Light 10:49
02. Laird of Heimly 3:54
03. Stanley (Tonight’s the Night) 4:10
04. The Comeback 4:32
05. Kip Satie 2:25
06. Balthazaar 11:40
07. Bed of Roses 3:19
08. Neotzar (The Second Coming) 21:07
09. Core Memory Corrupt 5:38
10. Three Frightened Monkeys 8:41
11. Dead of Winter 5:24

The shipping prices are absolutely insane though, more than $20 even for the CD version.

awesome! I passed on Neigh! thinking it was most likely a B-sides comp in disguise, but I'm sure this will be good. hopefully a US distributor gets it. long live the Psychonauts.

About halfway through and really, really like this one so far! Still doesn't appear to have US distribution anywhere that I can find, so I caved and ordered the CD version from their bandcamp page. They sent me the vinyl version though, lol.

if you don't have a record player I'll buy it off you!

Oh I've got a turntable, so it's not a big deal. Just thought it was funny, given the LP version being twice as expensive.

Theo Buhara strikes again!

https://motorpsycho.bandcamp.com/album/ahsol-caravan

woah

can't help but notice a lot of prog/kraut references in the song titles there

they're also doing a remaster of Child of the Future, which I always thought was badly needed. these guys just do not quit.

back on their bullshit

https://motorpsycho.bandcamp.com/album/the-gaia-ii-space-corps

I love pretty much everything they do but I do think they're at their best when writing catchy rock songs so both preview tracks have got me plenty excited

yep. it's a good one. more specific sound they're going for here but still very much feels like Motorpsycho, there's a fun reference to King Crimson's "Red" in there, and then the final track ends like something off one of those International Tussler Society records. and its only 36 minutes! I love these guys but man, their albums are just so long