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haha I just wanted to post I like all of Paolize's picks except for BS. But I'm löistening to it now for the first time in probably ten years and hey, that's a nice song. I think there are others on Cake/Phano/IALC I would have picked for being not so thrilling. I can spend the rest of my life without ever hearing Go To California again. Excpet for watching the video with band commentary on :lol:
ASFE brillllllliant! 6mins of 4/4 meter stomping one way straight ahead. Sucks me right in. Not one (or maybe one?) drum break or fill.
Child of the Future, a few months ago I got obsessed with that album. Always liked it but kind of got overlooked over the years. So it was a rediscovery.
Hyena is wonderful! That uplifitng energy with the cheekish boymeetsgirl lyric. A celebration of youth naiveté. Could've use more cowbell, though.
Trixeene is somewhat vintage MP, even back in 2006, that's why I always liked it.
The Afterglow always suprises me. I don't listen to SLWE too often and my brain remembers it as a somewhat of a not so spectacular album closer. But each time I realize it's actually quite grand.
Neverland is superb on the 2002 live version on the Haircuts DVD. That Bent/Geb relentless "oooomph!" on the one underneath Snah's furiousity solo? It's a blast!
I can't explain why others hear and feel what. I can only say that there is not an appalling compression to my ears. Or more present than on recent albums. Yes it doesn't sound like Timothy's Monster or AADAP. But it's not like all the MP albums sound exactly one way and only KoO is the odd one out.
The cold digital versus warm analogue debate is way too metaphysical for me, and also somewhat of a boring trench warfare of beliefs. I have too many musician friends who don't stop feeding that myth. Probably because they're not really professionals (me too for that matter) and don't really spend too much time with lots of different equipment and fall for all the half-truths out there (which I don't I'm cheeky enough to say :mrgreen: or at least I rather verify them firsthand before passing on). As if we always could tell for dead sure in any "blind test" listening experiment. Btw I just heard that Nirvana's Bleach and Melvins' Houdini guitars were played on transistor amps and not on holy tube amps. Who'd have thunk? So "tube amps are the best, period" is another one of those stubborn myths (but ssssshhhh don't tell this to my beloved Burman-502, though, haha).
I'm aware of analogue recording and tape saturation but digital technology has come a long way. And I'm not talking about guitar amp/speaker sims. I have that and yep, it doesn't sound at all as pleasant like a properly recorded guitar. But I find it quite useable if I want a far out guitar sound on purpose. But that's another matter, and I don't think that's what we hear on KoO.
If you say put the mic 30 feet away from the speaker is the way to go, I wonder on which MP album they did just that. Well maybe on the alternative version of The Golden Core, which does sounds amazing! But I go out on a limb here and state they put their mics right in front of the speaker like anybody else.
As Punj said, if we want to go there then these "issues" apply just as well to their classic 90s albums. But no one ever thought so, back then and nowadays. I guess thinking this way about their more recent albums now comes from overdosing on too much music piling up.
Might those who edit the albums for cohesiveness miss the point? Regarding music critcism I often stumble over the term "cohesive" as a positive quality. Something I don't get. What's good about cohesiveness? It's a construct instinctively associated with "good" without second guessing. The "all killer no filler" idea doesn't apply to art imo. All the little breathers found on Demon Box, TDDU, The Tower and KoO make the big songs truly stand out. That's their role and function. I guess that's how MP compile their albums on purpose. It's a tapestry, a caleidoscope. Listen without fear and most of all: patience.
When I put music on my phone to take out onto the beaches, I do edit some albums by some bands. But not one single Motorpsycho record, although I did rearrange the sequencing on a few. Behind the Sun is a great record but has an odd sequencing to my liking, especially the first four tracks.
Back to cohesiveness. For example on The Tower we'd have:
The Tower
Bartok
Dreamhome
ASFE
Cuckoo
Ship of Fools
or Demon Box:
NTS
Feedtime
Gutwrench
Sunchild
Mountain
AIL
Demon Box
Babylon
Junior
Plan #1
Sheer Profoundity
WFTO pt2
Both still great albums this way. But the magic's gone.
For TM, there's the single CD version and the unreleased original album in the 4CD box. Anyone prefers one of those to the proper release as we know it?
I only have ONE EXCEPTION! Here Be Monsters should be:
Big Black Dog
IMS (btw one of my all time fave songs!!!)
Here be Monsters pt 1 & 2
The other tracks I left out because I don't consider them necessary and/or welcome atmospheric fillers. I just don't like them that much. 8O
Anyways, I think these thoughts are absolutely legit and fun – don't get me wrong there – but they come from a conservative point of view how albums should be. And that's what MP don't give a crap about and therefore are what and who they are. Maybe that's even why they're not on a big biz major label.
I can't really relate to that. I don't hear more compression than on other MP records, especially not in guitar solos. Compared it in my sound production software and switch-listened between this one and some of their albums from LLM onwards. I hear it's louder and more bitey midrangey. Which I guess is the mastering, where of course compression/limiting is applied. And Helge Sten did the mastering, not Andrew Scheps, who was called the culprit by somebody earlier. Louder overall doesn't mean the individual tracks are more compressed. There seems to a push around 3khz, though, (hence bitey midrangey) in addition to be mastered quite loud. But defintely not brickwall mastered. It's supposed to be a hard rocking record. And we know the band always goes all in whatever they choose to do. Maybe we're used to their older albums being lower in volume and less harsh in the frequeny range compared to their peers' albums. There always has to be something to complain about. Too loud, too jammy, too prog, too pop, too short, too long, not enough saxofones and vinyl only…
I just put At Empire's End in said software for a radio show along with other new releases and compared to those this one has huge dynamics!
Not super fresh from the press but I like the new one by The Pink Moon (aka The Who from Trondheim):
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pink+moon+cosmic+heart+attack+youtube
Phil Collins? Why would I? It really sounds like Sting singing there to me and I love it. Not that I'm a huge Sting fan. But I like some of The Police. One can respect musicians for what they do and did without really liking it, no? Except maybe for Phil Collins… great drummer in early Genesis, though.
What I find weird: I really like this new one a lot and listened to it about ten times now. But apart from The Waning chorus I couldn't whistle any song of it when out and about somewhere. Old age showing?
you might have misunderstood me. I was describing the person which Bent's vocals remind me of, and that person was in a trio, then later had a solo career. And as a few pointed out, yes it is Sting. :mrgreen:
:::
Some need a few more spins. Underwritten? Aimless? Rushed? I mean if it doesn't move you. it doesn't. If you don't like it, you don't. Totally normal, no argument there. But underwritten and half arsed rushed? Whaaaat? Even the "straight rocker" (again… whaaat?) The Waning is super intricate. Maybe give it a few spins in headphones. Those details and finesses in the composition and production and the love and care for every little note are simply outstandig. Compared to this album, our beloved in nostalgia AADAPs or Blissards feel way more rushed and underwritten to me. Which is not a criticism per se. I like Wearing yr Smell and The Cosmonautic Lurker Thing just as well. But… say… whaaaat? If anything, I'd say it could be critised for being NOT raw and underwritten, or not spontaneous or spaced out jammy enough…
Maybe some really are just overdosed.
I'd like to point it out again: On "The Hunt", doesn't Bent remind you in voice and phrasing of a world famous singer/bassplayer? Who played in a trio and then started a solo career and their/his music is very different from anything Motorpsycho-related? It's so in-your-face to me but no one thinks so, too? 8O 8O 8O If intended by Bent, I find it half hilarious half brilliant.
ah yes, At Empire's End is the No Quarter-y one. Couldn't remember it before.
hmm… depressing? Funny, I don't feel this at all. Sombre here and there, but not more than on earlier albums. Lyrically it's quite serious, though.
Just this album and NOX and nothing else would be such a fantastic concert.
Ehm I wrote Snah's guitar sounds amazing but I can't be always sure if it's him or Reine… All the dings and dongs and gnarls and whooomps and whooshes sound so great! And so fresh! Classic AND modern. It feels like I'm 20 listening to a new record in 1978 (not that I was 20 back then…) by a bunch of highly skilled and energetic twentysomethings who are magically seasoned beyond young age in playing and songwriting and arranging rockin out and it still absolutely has a contemporary 2021 vibe.
According to liner notes it's been recorded in 2019?? 8O and some stuff (not pointed out exactly which) even in 2018.
so two spins later (spoiler alert!):
Apart from the NOX suite they haven't flashed me this much since TDDU. It's not as straight hard rock as some reviewes suggested. Well maybe compared to the Gullvag trilogy it is, but those albums really were way more prog than yr average rockers. Not a lot of King Crimosn and Yes to be found here. Still a lot of Black Sabbath, though. But not like yr average doom troupes who claim to be inspired by them but mostly just play Sweet Leaf in a thousand variations over and over again. The Sabbathy parts on this record draws from Sabbath's more adventurous sides. With the lyrics printed on the sleeve I also noticed how much Into the Void there is in The Waning. There's even a little nod to their song Supernaut in Cosmoctopus which obviously I find very cool! Something I noticed first on TAIO goes even further here: the vocal melodies/patterns/lines. If anything has ventured into new realms the most in recent years, then it's the singing. Also an instant like is "The Hunt". Very Tull. Velvet Green and Fat Man come to mind. But hey, Iommi and Jethro Tull aren't exactly strangers to each other. And on this one Bent sounds like a very popular singer from a completely different musical area. Worlds colliding in a brilliant track. I wonder if anyone will find and point this out as well or maybe it's just me. And hearing that singing style over this Jethro-ish track put a stupid grin on my face. Yes it must have been very stupid because I felt my face physically. Oh and sitting outside in a park listening to a new MP album for the first time is quite something. There I was on that bench grinning like an idiot. Haha. I never found a lot of Led Zeppelin in Motorpsycho's music. But one part, don't remember what song atm, is very "No Quarter".
So it's all a rip off then, eh? NO WAY! These are just the elements that I found easy to grasp on first impression through familiarity. Oh this sounds like this! Oh I know that from there! The other 90% are as original as usual. Unless there's lots of stuff coming from places I'm not aware of. But if so someone will point those out. And Lady May draws from their own back catalogue. Isn't that the "Into the Mystic" hookline?
Anyways, it's big, it's grand, it's delicate (some parts remind me of those lo-fi bathroom recorded 90s EP moods which they haven't done a lot since), it's ballsy. Some riffs call for a very grim facial expression on stage. You know, those Hulk neanderthal riffs. But it's fun! Oh and it sounds amazing! Snah's guitar especially. Andrew Scheps & Motorpsycho is a perfect fit.
yadda yadda blah, time for a 3rd spin….
