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@ Spacebandit – rather liking this Temple Fang album – reminds me quite a bit of Color Haze. Thanks for the recommendation.
It's fantastic to see these Child of the Future tracks making an appearance – I adore that album. I hope this is a prelude to them making it available on their Bandcamp page.
If the band could live stream some of the shows I'm sure there's a bunch of us willing to pay to watch from afar. Having said that, I don't know the costs involved in setting that up but hopefully it would be worth it.
I think that to a fair degree TAIO is an immediately more accessible album, making it easier for reviewers and even more casual listeners to get something out of in the first couple of spins, even while recognising that there's more to be gained from repeated listens. The last review Wulf posted, though, is perhaps the one that beautifully juxtaposes the album against the band's historical output and as a consequence is less glowing, more critical, and ultimately more balanced – although I do think the reviewer might have one foot too firmly planted in the past.
Personally I absolutely fucking love the album. The Black Box tracks are a wonderful display of breezy but tight and yet not simple rock – somewhere between The Tower and Phanerothyme (IMHO), while the Kommun' tracks provide a sweet yet somehow also sour taste of melancholic folk à la Feel or Sungravy. And then NOX just sends me off on the most glorious trip of spacey psychedelic jazz heaviness. My opinion may change in years to come, when I can look back with some distance from the moment, but right now it stands as my favourite track of the band's entire output. TAIO is not my favourite album though – it has its weaknesses which, to my mind, rest entirely with sides A and D. But hey, it all comes down to personal teaste so who cares on that front. I am happy to see the band getting good reviews and maybe pulling in a few more listeners – although they may be losing a few too. I imagine it has ever been thus.
@Bartok. Oh you tease. :wink:
Ok, thanks, Supernaut. I guess reviewers are just making (educated) guesses based on what they hear. Fair enough.
I'd really like to know who plays what on each of the tracks on this album, but sadly the CD version doesn't contain any such information about who plays what … at all! Is this information available on the vinyl version? If so, is there someone who can help fill me in? Perhaps a photo of the info? If so, please send to jyotipunj at hotmail dot com.
Nice little article-cum-review in the Italian edition of Rolling Stone. The article is written by Andrea Scarfone of psych band Julie's Haircut.
Trasnlated From the Italian into English by Google:
If you listen to Motorpsycho you immediately become a fan
On the occasion of the release of the new album 'The All Is One', we asked Andrea Scarfone of Julie's Haircut to talk about the charm of the Norwegian band. There are impeccable concerts, perfectionism, interplay
By Andrea Scarfone
Not more than a month ago I discovered an electronic music disc released in a few copies in 1986 in my city, Reggio Emilia, by what would become one of the most famous Italian entrepreneurs, Luigi Maramotti, patron of Max Mara. The disc is titled Knot Music – Music for distracted listening. Well, given the current use of music, perhaps that of Maramotti was a far-sighted provocation that gave me a perfect interpretation not only for the new work of Motorpsycho The All Is One, but more generally for the decades-long production music of the Norwegian band: Motorpsycho have never made music for distracted listening.
I guiltily admit that my first listen of The All Is One was rather distracted. I did not immediately grasp the caliber of the work, which emerged in all its glory after listening to it with the right attention. The latest part of a trilogy that began in 2017 with The Tower and continued in 2019 with The Crucible, The All Is One is basically divided into two parts. All the songs, head and tail of the disc, were recorded in France, while the monolithic five-part suite, the heart of the work, comes from a session recorded later in Norway. For the first time in many years I have found a band capable of ranging with credibility between genres in a coherent work. The All Is One is a long journey that deserves to be consumed in its entirety without interruption.
I had high expectations for this release. As a longtime fan I was constantly waiting for a turnaround after the change of direction following the separation from longtime drummer HÃ¥kon Gebhardt. As a musician I know how important and how much weight the drummer's style is in the economy of a band. After HÃ¥kon, who helped to compose some of their fundamental records (Let Them Eat Cake, Trust Us, Timothy's Monster to name a few) the drums chapter became a problem for the Norwegians, which was partially solved with the entry of Kenneth Kapstad, leading the band between 2008 and 2016 in what for many listeners was an excessively prog period, with technically exceptional compositions, but often of lesser emotional appeal.
In 2017 the arrival of Tomas Järmyr (already behind the drums with our compatriots Zu) shifted the balance again in a direction that I think is more congenial to longtime fans, bringing back to the line-up a stylistically more versatile drumming than on the one hand led them towards new sounds, but on the other hand it inevitably allowed that type of heterogeneous composition that characterized the band in the 90s, capable of ranging from folk to prog / psychedelic rides, for the happiness of those who, like me, of music is omnivorous. The signs that something was happening I had during the last concert I attended at the Locomotiv in Bologna with a band in a state of grace as I have not seen and heard for some time (thanks also to the extraordinary Reine Fiske on guitar, now permanent employee).
I've been following Motorpsycho since their third album Demon Box in 1993, but I didn't see them live until May 15th 1998 at the Maffia Club, for the tour of what is considered one of their masterpieces, Trust Us. Seeing them live was a shock and I think I have lost very few of them since that concert, in their usual Italian passages, having now about twenty live shows in a 22-year period. In recent years I have been able to collect about 65 vinyls and CDs, almost all of their production, I met them in person (with one of them I also shared the stage) and last year I visited their city. (Trondheim). Motorpsycho are not a particularly well-known band outside a certain circuit of fans, even if in Italy there is a particularly loyal and present fan base of “psychonautsâ€. As a musician and lover of a certain approach linked to improvisation and free interplay with other musicians during their concerts, I have always wondered how they could be so cohesive and effective during jams, the true focus of performances. I found some answers to my questions by watching their DVD Haircuts which in two discs contains an integral live, captured in the period in my opinion most interesting, as well as a number of documents of daily life that explain how for them playing is a great passion. , but also a job. A job that they love a lot and that pushes them to try for hours, almost daily.
The geographic location of their city, a splendid place, but where it is very likely not easy to live especially in winter, helps them in this sense. Years ago, during a long chat with Gebhardt, a detail emerged that further confirmed their level of perfectionism. HÃ¥kon told me that they often found themselves arguing after the concerts about details that they did not consider successful about the performance just ended. Details that as a spectator, wanting even more attention to certain subtleties as a musician, never jumped to my ear, always considering them impeccable and capable of taking the public on board their spaceship, often and willingly even for concerts that exceeded three hours.
For some years now there has been a Dutch roadie at their side, a kind of Gandalf of valves named Tös. He comes from hardcore and currently plays as a musician in the well-known metal drone band Sunn O))). I told him how much I felt the Grateful Dead present in the Motorpsycho attitude and he almost took offense at the comparison, telling me there was nothing similar to those "American freaks". I cannot explain exactly what is in their formula, what is the ingredient capable of transforming their listeners into true followers. Most of their audience is made up of loyalists, a bit like the Deadheads, fans of the Grateful Dead, a group that, with all due respect to Tös, is certainly very close to Motorpsycho in terms of setting. Unlike the Dead, the three Norwegians, however, were able to musically range so much to satisfy all listeners, including the most radical ones like Tös.
For a novice listener it is not easy to approach the band in 2020, having to extricate themselves from a truly extensive and varied discography. For this reason, I created a playlist on Spotify that collects my favorite songs and draws from all their records, the result of thirty years of career: you can find it here. For those who want to get an idea of ​​their potential live, I recommend this Vimeo channel [Bernie's Basement] which contains some very interesting live shows.
Just one review on ProgArchives to date, but the album has a very healthy overall rating of 4.13, placing it in the ProgArchives top ten for 2020 albums so far.
The rating of 4.13 also places The All Is One second among all Motorpsycho studio albums. Seven MP albums have an overall rating of 4.00 or more.
The Death Defying Unicorn 4.18
The All Is One 4.13
In The Fishtank 4.12
Trust Us 4.08
Phanerothyme 4.03
Behind The Sun 4.00
The Tower 4.00
