Yee-ahh, what a hoedown!Originally Posted by mylard
Yee-ahh, what a hoedown!
Well, to be specific, it's their "alter ego-band" The International Tussler Society who released those quite interesting two records. One in 1994 and the other in 2004, I believe.
Bent Sæther and Snah were always ardent buyers of secondhand vinyl, and on discovering "new" artifacts they'd often either make covers of tunes from those artists or indeed take in their entire conceptual approach. Which was what The International Tussler Society were all about, as they'd only recently dug into Gram Parsons' work with International Submarine Band, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Bros. Additionally both Snah and Bent S. are huge admirers of The Grateful Dead and wanted to do a "roots makeover" as that of the Dead anno 1970.
You know, when the 'psychos released "Spin, Spin, Spin" as a single only a few years back, several writers here in Norway pointed to Terry Callier's little-known original recording of his song. Whereas the whole thing was actually triggered by Bent S. finally having obtained the second H.P. Lovecraft album, on which "Spin" of course is the opening track. It differs a bit from Callier's original, so to those in the know it was pretty obvious how Lovecraft's rednition was the source - not Callier's.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
The song "The United Debased" on the new album is so good! Classic riffs. I'm listening to the album but skipped The Waning pts I & II because I've heard pt. I so much now. Listening to hear what other tracks pop out at me, like this one.
Any vendors in the US for this besides Amazon?
Laser's Edge has it on the way, it's just taking its sweet time.
I think I've had enough spins to properly digest the new album.
It shouldn't surprise anyone who has read anything I've posted about this album to hear that I love it.
It's quite a nice balance of heavy, Sabbath-like riffs ("The Waning," "Transmutation") and jangly folk sing-a-longs ("Lady May," "The Hunt"). "Atet" and "After the Fair" provide nice segues but are wonderful on their own merits.
Ryan's lead vox on the title track sound good. I don't think he had a lead on the last album (unless he's singing the heavily distorted lines in the N.O.X. song cycle), and the last few viddys on the Motorpsychodelicclips page had me a little worried. Some of those vocals are rough--not that either Ryan or Bent are world-class singers, and that is said without hatred or judgement. Not sure if there's a lot of studio gimmickry going on, but he sounds good.
My favorite track is either "Transmutation" or "The Watcher." The latter feels like the sound experiments from earlier albums like Demon Box or Timothy's Monster. Have Motorpsycho been around so long that they're finally starting to influence themselves???
I know the criticism for Kingdom is likely to be that the band is treading water, that they're not pushing boundaries. But that's less of a concern for me when the music is this damn good.
I love the artwork, too.
Basically, if the Motorpsychos want to keep making this music, I'm going to keep buying it.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I think the album is VERY good! Laser’s Edge JUST got it in stock finally, so I just ordered a copy!
With a band like Motorpsycho, who appeal to several different musical fandoms, it's fun to gauge the reaction to a new album in different places on the internet. I've seen a lot of praise from prog spheres (which I mostly agree with), but I've seen some negative opinions on the band's own forum. It seems a lot of them don't like Motorpsycho's "prog direction", and hoped this would be a bigger departure from that. Motorpsycho have changed so much, and done so many different things over the years, and I feel "progressive" is the genre descriptor that has almost always best described them. They've been a heavy metal/grunge/noise-influenced/post-whatever band, they've been a jazzy pop band, they've been an old school metal/classic rock band. They've been many things, but they've always had prog in their DNA. So it's funny to see people want them to stop playing prog, when they've pretty much always been prog in one way or another, in my opinion. I get what they mean, of course, and they're obviously entitled to their opinions. Just an observation. Thoughts?
Do you think Rune Gramaphone tries to keep them in a proggy direction? Or maybe they're not the kind of band to respond to that kind of "steering?" The new album is suitably proggy.
Just from interviews I've seen over the years, I gather that they are not the type to take steering. The main two guys, Bent and Hans, have been playing together for a really long time, and it seems the past few albums have been born out of extended jam sessions, and then worked on from there. So I think the prog is mostly just what those guys are into at the moment, and what they want to play.
Well, lucky for us!
Let them eat cake.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
No.
If you go to the "great about Norwegian" blah-blah thread, you'll see what I wrote about the "wakening" of the Rune Grammofon label and encurrent scene of liberal music-arts activity in Norway commencing sometime in the late-90s- You can also read about details as to how Bent and Hans were gradually informed by historical liberties in expression of rock in accordance with stuff they discovered and encountered in collector's bins and so on - from a very early point in the 90s.
Rune Kristoffersen - who runs Rune Grammofon - was one half of 80s sophisti-pop duo Fra Lippo Lippi here in Norway. He was already a fan of both progressive rock, radical post-punk and art-pop stylings from early on.
It's not about "being proggy" but about presenting artistically interesting and challenging music in the current. And most of the time they (Rune Grammofon) succeed in doing so.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I can't keep up with this band as I am still trying to absorb their last album. They put out so much music and it is music that requires concentrated listening to really catch all the nuances of everything they do. I will pick up the new one soon, but it boggles my mind with how they come up with so much great stuff so quickly.
Thanks for this thread... Turned me on to these guys and their last 3 albums are fantastic and in heavy rotationn
Welp, here's two new songs the Psychonauts recently played.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Finally got around to getting Kingdom of Oblivion. Me likey!
That's my review.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
I hope the band stays in this proggy groove!
finally gave The Tower a listen; by the end of "A Pacific Sonata" I was wondering if they'd suddenly gotten into Magma (anyone else hear "Hhai" in there?) only to get to "Ship of Fools" of which the 2nd half is basically a homage to MDK! absolutely amazing, too...I dare say this is one of their very best albums
Critter Jams "album of the week" blog: http://critterjams.wordpress.com
I think it's their biggest sounding record. The dude who produced it also built all of the stringed instruments, amps, and most of the devices in the signal path during recording, and it shows.
bassist in Papangu, a zeuhl metal band from Brazil https://papangu.bandcamp.com/album/holoceno
"The Tower" was my introduction to the band and still a favorite.
Saether noted that he was listening to a lot of VdGG when this album was being put together. He was really taken by how the band would basically split down the middle and play two separate songs at the same time. There's a lot of that going on in The Tower.
Like Steven Wilson, Motorpsycho are very . . . sponge-y with their influences and wear them proudly.
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
I'll have to give this one another listen soon, because I had a hard time with the CSNY-type stuff in it, but I didn't notice the Magma! My intro was "The All Is One," so I'm a relatively new fan and not the best at "deciphering" their albums I guess.
Oh man. It's been a minute since the last Motorpsycho album. Thank goodness the new one is coming out in August!
Here are the details:
Incoming! We are happy to announce that there is a new Motorpsycho album on the horizon. “Ancient Astronauts” will be released on Friday, August 19. Recorded in the summer of 2021, it’s the newest recorded chapter in Motorpsycho’s more than 30-year history.
To quote Bill Graham on The Dead: “They aren’t the best at what they do, they are the only ones that do what they do.”
Motorpsycho will follow up the release of Ancient Astronauts with some festival gigs in various European countries.
Presales will start on July 15 and we will continue our tradition of having a mailorder-only vinyl version. More details will follow closer to the date, so watch this space!
https://www.stickman-records.com/new...ing-august-19/
I want to dynamite your mind with love tonight.
Hooray!! Thanks for sharing that!
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