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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
Yep. Great idea. I'd love to have a chance to see them play online. And would definitely pay for the privilege.
If anyone has a subscription to Dagsavisen, could they copy the review to this thread, with a translation, please.
The headline appears to be:
"Review Motorpsycho: "The All Is One" is the crowning achievement"
After listening to The All Is One Carsten Sandkämper at visions.de concludes 'Motorpsycho [are] a contender for the position of "Greatest Rock Band on the Planet"'. He'll get no argument from me :lol:
Translation into English from German by Google:
In the year of madness 2020, Motorpsycho have nothing better to do than complete their "Gullvag Trilogy" with an album that makes "The Tower" look like a little brother and "The Crucible" like their second cousin.
"The All Is One" sums up in an unusually open manner what our time is sick of: "Nobody talks anymore / The public discourse is gone / It's ugly like never before / Binary thinking has won / We're too busy killing ourselves to talk it over ". Bent Saether uses memorable statements that, taken individually, explain our world in a devastating way. They embrace the themes of The Tower , The Crucible and this album, all of which are inspired by the art of the Norwegian painter Hakan Gullvag. Motorpsycho move musicallyin their own universe of prog rock and psychedelia, in which they are still going through new developments. The stomper "The Same Old Rock (One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy)" breathes Creedence Clearwater Revival and references his own past when Motorpsycho fans let themselves be flattened by Psychonaut for the first time . In the 60s psycho beat of "The Magpie", the trio plus guitarist Reine Fiske plays in euphoria, while "Delusion (The Reign Of Humbug)" lets Saether glide through the scenery in a maximally ethereal and entranced way. All of this is just the overture to the 40-minute suite "NOX", with which the band is jazz in the ensemble with Jagas Lars Horntveth and violinist Ola Kvernberg shakes a true jazz rock monster out of their sleeves. When "Circles Around The Sun Pt. 1" with its epic bolerosque melody tips over into a wild violin solo, Van der Graaf Generator's free spirit flashes for a short time. The directly incidental "Ouroboros" could also have occurred to Frank Zappa with its clever superimposition of rhythm and melody patterns as well as Snah's enraptured solo . "Ascension" is a brief moment of breathing, reminiscent of Yes ' Topographic Oceans , before the 15-minute "Night Of Pan" in repetitive figures and ever new overlays of colorful soundscapes and hypnotic percussion into nirvanaopens. What ends in absolute frenzy at the end of "Circles Around The Sun Pt. 2" is probably Motorpsycho's most engaging piece of music since "The Wheel" or "Un Chien D'Espace". The fact that "NOX" is followed by another section the length of the album, which contains perhaps the most beautiful piece of the album with the nine-minute "Dreams Of Fancy", speaks not only for the sequencing of "The All Is One", but also for Motorpsycho as a benchmark for Contender for the position of "Greatest Rock Band on the Planet".
@Supernaut – Yes it's there in N.O.X. but the effects make it less clear. I like it when it's clear.
@TraktorBass – Hmm, not sure if I should say – I mean, it's quite possible that Supernaut and Rune are thinking about something else entirely. But here's a clue – Greener, Like Always, Year Zero …
Supernaut:
Quote:mmmm maybe I've been wrong about that thing oddly missing. It might only apply to the songs outside of N.O.X. Looking forward to your views on that.I'm pretty sure I know what you're talking about. Conspicuous by its absence, and I, for one, miss it.
Overall an exceptional album, although, like Kid A, I'm not so immediately drawn in to a couple of the tracks on Side D, but that's fine. I'm sure it'll grow, as JERO suggest.
13/15 from Musikreviews.de
Translation into English from German by DeepL:
When MOTORPSYCHO release a new album, music nerds everywhere prick up their ears, because the exceptional band that has been giving impulses to the prog scene since the mid-1980s never stands still, which is why it is impossible to predict what they will come up with next.
Even though the Norwegians have become a bit calmer in the past few years with regard to blatant breaks in style (also due to parallel projects, soundtrack work, etc.), as expected they also surprise in many places on "The All Is One", although the songs must be understood in the context of the "Gullvag Trilogy", which will be concluded with this album.
Just as the title track has a certain vintage prog and Beatles character with regard to the poppy melodic infatuation and Bent Sæther's usual nasally voice, he, multi-instrumentalist Hans Magnus Ryan and the drummer who has been part of the band since 2017, dawdle comfortably for almost nine minutes towards a sunset that seems even more perfect during 'Dreams Of Fancy'.
The two numbers are as compelling as the ironic driving force 'The Same Old Rock' (Roy Harper heard, men?). This one, just like the swinging 'The Magpie', would also lend itself to being a single because the group seems to be focusing on catchy choruses again.
Melodic motifs that one might think to know from the previous albums "The Tower" (2017) and "The Crucible" (2019) are at least not to be found superficially on "The All Is One", but that makes sense insofar as the trilogy was intended as a loose concept.
At the center of the action, however, is the five-part 'N-O-X', one of MOTORPSYCHO's masterpieces par excellence, which takes almost three-quarters of an hour to complete: Symphonic passages, sinister heavy riffs, ominously wide distortion basses and effect-loaded vocals make 'Circles Around The Sun Pt 1' an exciting introduction before 'Ouroboros' offers stoically whipping space rock; Via the interlude 'Ascension', lined with string arrangements, one reaches the dramatic climax of the album – 'Night Of Pan' spirals up to undreamt-of heights that are only reached by very few post-rock acts for over 15 minutes, even though they have more or less made it their business.
Elsewhere, too, the trio turn their noses up at the rest of the scene: The three dreamy segments 'Delusion', 'A Little Light' and 'The Dowser' strengthen the cohesion of the once again hardly countable ideas that the trio is working on, and whether or not they have dealt with the thematic foundation in more detail: The lively finale really does fit the album's hat-trick very well as the final movement.
CONCLUSION: The perfect tightrope walk between sophisticated retro prog and almost mass-market psychedelia – MOTORPSYCHO do not innovate a bit in 2020, but prefer to write exciting songs in partly epic format, which air familiar sound settings with a fresh breeze.
