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8/10 from Artrock.se
I’m not going to say that Norwegian Motorpsycho started to get downright annoying. But on the records that followed the masterpiece “The death-defying unicorn” – released in 2012 together with experimental compatriot Ståle Storløkken and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra – the listener has increasingly been able to sit back in the certainty that you know what you’re getting. That is, heavy, swinging melodic, controlled flume with at least one trip around the world per album. It’s generally been very good, too, but this is still a band that, over its thirty-plus years, has had variation as a code of honor. Country? Certainly! Indie pop? Absolutely.
That’s why it’s great that we’re now treated to a basically acoustic album from the troika. The music is still sticky melodious and hallucinatory hypnotic. But the fact that you rest on a bed of clear-voiced, acoustic guitars creates new freshness. It’s 1960s rather than taken from the decade after. “Real again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)” sounds like it was taken from “The Who sell out” (1967) while “Loch meninglessness & the Mull of Dull” (exquisite titles!) echoes of Simon and Garfunkel, but with an Indian twist. And the ensemble can’t refrain from a relatively long drive: “Hotel Daedalus” is just over seven minutes of heavy-rocking Motorpsycho as we’ve come to know them; wonderfully pompously symphonic, but perhaps even more melodious than usual. The play in question will probably get a place of honor on my annual list at the end of 2023, while “Yay!” on the other hand, probably Motorpsycho’s strongest album since said “…Unicorn”.
Translated by Google Translate from:
8 points from Saiten Kult
MOTORPSYCHO have neither reinvented themselves with their latest studio album, nor have they radically readjusted themselves by turning away from the tried and tested methods. The Norwegians have summarily got rid of the heaviness of epic and progressiveness for this one work. After all, the group has always been open to surprises.
The core trio around Bent Sæther, Hans Magnus Ryan and Tomas Järmyr, expanded to include Reine Fiske and Lars Fredrik Swahn, did not completely get rid of the expensive coal-fired power plant electricity with ‘Yay!’ and did not record a pure acoustic album, but rather one on acoustic instruments constructed work produced.
The ten new compositions of ‘Yay!’ do not explore the interactions of loud and quiet, but seek their own middle ground. Songs like ‘Cold & Bored’ and ‘W.C.A.’ nestle straight into the pants with the usual Scandinavian warmth – complete with acoustic guitars, harmonic vocals and congas for the rhythm. Likewise, ‘Sentinels’ storms into the viewer’s soul with a zither in the background. ‘Patterns’ even packs the electric guitar and synthesizer gently on top of that, as well as ‘Hotel Daedalus’ the corresponding guitar solo and ‘The Rapture’, so to speak, the violins.
Whoever loves to look at the starry sky stark naked at night, be enchanted by acoustic guitars and dark Scandinavian mellotron sounds as well as heroic harmonies, will get the full pampering program from MOTORPSYCHO.
(8 points)
Translated by Google Translate from
The Holy Family – Go Zero (release date 21 July)
The first (self-titled) album by The Holy Family – comprising mostly members of the excellent British band Guapo* – was a brilliant, sprawling mash-up of kosmiche, psyche, electronica, zeuhl, and acid folk. A captivating double album and easily one of my albums of 2021. Live, they proved to be an even more intense experience with jams propelled by Sam Warren’s magnificent driving bass grooves.
Expectations are high for another great album, and I aim to be at their London gig in August.
* If you don’t know Guapo, check out the albums Five Suns or History of the Visitation.
I don’t have access to this, but it looks like an interesting article at Adressa about the album’s artwork/photos
Track listing:
Motorpsycho: Yay
01. Cold & Bored
02. Sentinels
03. Patterns
04. Dank State
05. W.C.A.
06. Real Again (Norway shrugs and stays at home)
07. Loch Meaninglessness & the Mull of Dull
08. Hotel Daedalus
09. Scaredcrow
10. The Rapture@nicoot – I currently have tickets for Tilburg and Utrecht and will probably add Zwolle too. See you in Tilburg, hopefully.
@JERO – welcome back. I hope to see you in Utrecht in October!
It could also be just for fun to go along with the exclamation mark after Yay! Are We Not Men? We Are Devo! Motorpsycho? Yay!
Well I definitely like that artwork a lot more than the “Yay!” speech bubble. In the Instagram post, artwork is credited to Johann Harstad and Jonathan. The artwork definitely suggests acoustic psychedelia (
). Is the figure calling out “Yay!” recognisable to anyone? @suntripper – Yep! It’s hard to miss if you’re a Yes fan.
Fantastic news! So, is this going to be the acoustic/semi-acoustic material they sent to Reine to work on? On the one hand, I hope so; on the other, I don’t care because it’s a new album anyway!
Mini-tour of the UK – dates (so far)
22.06.2023 UK Southampton – The 1865
23.06.2023 UK London – O2 Academy, Islington
24.06.2023 UK Leicester – HRH Psych CANCELLED
25.06.2023 UK Leeds – The Key Club@ nicoot. Yes I do mean 23.06. Thanks for the correction.
Leeds? Looks like a mini-UK tour? I expect they’ll play somewhere on the 24th June too, then.
