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Ocean in Her Eye from Reutlingen, GER 1998/05/22
The massive grind of Snah's Hiwatt/Orange/Space-Echo setup is breathtaking and the definitive version of this song.
The playing was top notch, make no mistake. And there were plenty of moments of absolute greatness, and overall a very high level. N.O.X. was off the chart great. Just missing the last «X» factor that happens once in every 20 or 30 gigs. That, and Snah’s vocals….
I’d say it was a good, but not outstanding show. Bent and Snah both seemed maybe a little tired, possibly after draining studio sessions in the preceding week. So it felt a little bit like they were, if not exactly «going through the motions», then doing the job but not having the extra gear to shift into.
However, it shows how far they have come as a band with Tomas. The show consisted of nearly exclusively Tomas-era material, and there was not one attempt at crowd-pleasing save for the encore. Pretty uncompromising stuff, even though the KoO material leans a bit too much towards the stonery heavy rock sound and too little psychonautisms for my taste, so it got a wee bit samey sounding during the first hour. Some songs were fairly shaky during the vocal parts, at least the ones sung by Snah (sorry Snah, love you to bits but last night his vocals were awful even by his standards), but picked up as soon as the instrumental parts took over. As far as a band playing together, they are as good or maybe even better than ever, not least due to Tomas who delivered beyond requirements again and again.
BTW, Like Chrome was sung by Snah which was unusual. Really missed Bent’s voice on that one.
N.O.X. was just as amazing live as I hoped, really another stone cold Motorpsycho classic.
It also speaks volumes that the band can deliver a show with absolutely no Geb-era classics (except for the encore) and yet the only thing I was craving was for more new songs! Really bummed we didn’t get Azrael or Ancient Astronauts (presuming they are Ny Lang/Halvlang) after they had played one or both of them at all(?) gigs this summer, or any of the new acoustic ones.
The gig took place outdoors in a museum courtyard on a hill in the middle of Tønsberg. I guess they had to confer to a curfew, as they started on the spot at 20:00 and played a main set of 2 hours, then quieted down with an acoustic encore.
Did anybody see this for real? Mind is utterly blown by that setlist. I know we can't expect the same in Tønsberg this Saturday, but expectations are pretty high now.
What cool titles – Ancient Astronauts, Azrael… and what were those acoustic numbers like? BTW, have they done The Maypole before?
Ticket bought for Tønsberg. I realized I haven't seen them since Drammen 2018(?)! That's probably the longest break ever without a Motorpsycho gig, and a real shame it is.
I hope they are still doing N.O.X. as I would love to experience that live. Give me that, Ny Halvlang og Ny Lang and I'm happy, they can do whatever they want for the rest of the gig.
In fact, that setlist…Cosmoctopus, N.O.X. and then the new track (presumably that is the new song #2 from Youtube since setlist says New Long Song)…that’s pretty far out for the first part of the show!
Wow, once again they sure don’t rest on their laurels! This sounds nothing like anything else from the Thomas era. Very Floydian at times, droney, spacey, kraut-y and psychedelic, but then lots of other things happen. Around the 9-11 min mark of the second new track they sound closer to a 97-98 live sound than I have heard them ever since! Me likey very muchy.
Watching that N.O.X. clip and I’ll be the first to say it: Thomas is the best drummer they ever had. Never thought anyone could top Gebhardt for sheer drive and musicality, but Thomas takes all that, then adds Kenneth’s fluidity and technical skill, and then serves it up with a sense of weirdness and otherness that is all his own. Brilliant.
I have absolutely no problems with Motorpsycho's pop leanings. In fact, it's one of the things that sets them apart from many other bands.
Out of that list, there are many songs I don't much care for because I either find them somewhat annyoing (Neverland) or just not very good (Trixeene).
I really, really like Hyena, and I think Child of the Future and ASFE are just fine. The rest I can probably do without. But they are part of the family, and I am not going to disown them entirely…
I revisited the IALC material today (album and Serpentine EP). First thing that struck me was how nice it sounded (from a sound quality point of view). I always quite like IALC even though it was hated by many when it was released. I thought it was generally much better than Phanerothyme, but there were some puzzling choices.
The vinyl release has very short album sides, and that is part of the reason why it doesn’t flow well, but even on the CD it really struggles to build up any steam or reach any cohesion IMHO. Then there are some real stinkers. What If… and Composite Head just stick out like very, very sore thumbs. Neverland was never one I liked much either, but in my reimagined album it stays to add some spice. So here’s how I would do it; axe Circles (nice track, but feels unfinished and kills the album almost right from the beginning), Composite Head and replace What If with Little Ricky Massenburg as the Geb track. Then resequnce like this for a single album:
Side A:
Uberwagner
This Otherness
Little Ricky Massenburg
Carousel
Side B:
Neverland
The Mirror and the Lie
Custer’s Last Stand
Serpentine
I think I understand what you’re trying to say Aki, and you make a fair point. There is (presumably) a very conscious decision by the artist to present the work in the manner it is released. And as a listener, we have to make an effort to try to understand that, I have done that very thing with TAIO. I’ve asked myself many times why they chose to present N.O.X. the way they did, sandwiched between much more conservative material.
But nevertheless I think it’s a valid criticism to point out when I think the artistic choices are working against the material, which is essentially what I am driving at here. I think some of the recent tracks would work better in a different context, and that’s a bit of a shame IMHO.
As I pointed out, there are albums I wouldn’t touch, even if they are not among my favourite ones. The vast majority of their albums are like that, it’s only really the last two and the 2013-14 era I think would have been better served by a different presentation. Well, I guess It’s a Love Cult only has enough good material for a single album, but that would have been a great album, perhaps I’ll compile that next.
For the record, I am appreciating KOO a little more than I did at first, but I still don’t think it flows nicely as an album. The Thomas era has been fantastic so far, so these are really minor quibbles in the grand picture. The amount of great material the last 3-4 years is staggering.
I doubt that the band are very concerned that a few nerdy fans are having fun rearranging their albums, Aki.
And of course it’s easier in retrospect. But nevertheless I would make a case that their editing decisions in the 90s were better than recently, or so it would appear, Case in point; Timothy version 0 that was never released in favour of the vastly superior end result. Or leaving the When the World Sleeps material in the vaults. Or rearranging and remixing the original Blissard. All of these decisions led to much better results either by leaving out material or remixind and re-sequencing.
I gave my own «Hell» mini LP a spin this morning, and that would have made a great release, mixing the sludgy stoner-y stuff with the etheral, progressive and melodic and finally the brutal, tight and punchy ending, showing off all their sides in one neat suite. My re-imagined Behind the Sun would then make a nice «return to the songs» after the heavy and somewhat pretentious concept albums (Death Defying Unicorn and Hell).
I will have to think about sequencing and such, but a few thoughts on the RG era albums:
Little Lucid Moments
Child of the Future
Heavy Metal Fruit
The Death Defying Unicorn
I would leave these as they are. LLM always felt a little unfulfilling to me, with the suite feeling a bit like three separate songs just strung together, She Left on the Sunship meandering in the second half and so on. In a way, I think this is where their self-editing started to lack a little and some LPs started to feel a touch bloated, but there’s nothing in particular I would axe. These albums are all fine as they are, some more succesful than others.
Still Life With Eggplant
Behind the Sun
The Motorpnakotic Fragments
Some serious editing and re-sequencing is in order here. I agree that the Motorpnakotic Fragments actually work quite well as a way of rounding up the material in a way that the EPs did in the 90s and early 00s. But I miss those EPs as they could be a home to tracks that didn’t quite make the cut for an LP. Either because they didn’t fit thematically or musically, or if it was a cover song, or if it was a weird one (Geb tracks) or if it just wasn’t quite a standout song, I feel that some songs on more recent albums would have been better off on an EP. It might shine in a setting like that, whereas it gets lost on an overly long LP. IMHO, many of the KOO tracks are like that.
In any case, one EP from the 2013-14 era that this particular executive producer and label head would demand, was a Hell pt 1-7 EP (almost more of a mini-album). I think that would make a really cool stand-alone release.
Still Life With Eggplant would never exist. Instead we would have a Behind the Sun album minus Hell pt 4-7 but featuring Barleycorn, The Jig Is Up Mockingbird and Forget It, maybe a few more (need to revisit this material and think about the sequencing). That would make it a fairly light, breezy and melodic album, a nice contrast with the Hell EP. Lead-off single would be Cloudwalker, also released on an EP like in the older days, with Whiskey and Rock and Roll (the fun number), August and Future of Our Nation (the cover songs). Ratcatcher, Dominoes and a few more would never see the light of day until the 20th anniversary reissue boxed set.
En Konsert For Folk Flest
Here Be Monsters
Begynnelser
I would leave these as they are. EKFFF obviously exists on its own terms. HBM…well, nothing can save that turd. Ok, ok….add the title track to make the misery complete, and maybe axe Spin Spin Spin as that is a typical EP track. Begynnelser is a weirdo collection anyway so doesn’t need any editing.
The Tower
The Crucible
These two are perfect as they are. The Tower is a warts-and-all type album (with very few warts), it feels urgent and necessary and drivne all the way through. Nothing should be added or removed. The Crucible is similarly strong, solid as a rock but just missing the last X factor to make it a true standout album. Nevertheless nothing needs to be changed,
The All Is One
Kingdom of Oblivion
The obvious thing here is to release N.O.X. on its own. It deserves and needs full attention and is so different from the rest of the material here. I love it to bits. The next album after that would be Kingdom of Oblivion (or alternate title The Waning. I really need to take a little more time to think about how best to combine the material from TAIO and KOO for the best result. I have decided the title track from KOO needs to be in there. It’s strong enough to deserve a spot on a double album, but in its current incarnation I think it has to carry too much weight, it’s not quite that strong.
Rough track listing suggestion, this needs more work to get the proper flow and I might have to find room for The Hunt and Delusion (The Reign of Humbug) somewhere:
Side A:
The Waning (minus part 2)
Kingdom of Oblivion
The Same Old Rock
Side B:
The Magpie
Lady May
The United Debased (with drastically different production and edited slightly)
Side C:
Dreams of Fancy
At Empire’s End
Side
A Little Light
The Transmutation of Cosmoctopus Lurker
Like Chrome
That leaves some material for an EP, either a stand-alone one (title track The All Is One perhaps?) or as a lead-off single (The Waning?). The Dowser, The Watcher and Dreamkiller would be on this EP. The former as the «Bent alone in his apartment» type track (it’s not quite that, but it serves the same purpose) and the latter two as both a cover song and a stranger kind of track that I don’t think works at all on the album, but might shine on an EP.
Oh, and I don’t hear The Lurker as prog-metal at all. The angular but elliptical patterns with whole tone transposition is straight out of the Robert Fripp school in my opinion. Also a very nice nod to Get Up With It era Miles Davis in the psyched-out mellow section towards the end.
Whatever it is, the sound of this record really puts me off. Whether it’s Scheps, Sten or Sæther’s fault I really dislike it and it’s part of the reason I don’t get any emotional connection with it. The vocal mixing and effects particularly makes it sound very out of the Motorpsycho spirit as I think of it.
The Cosmoctopus thingy rocks pretty hard though, that’s probably my favourite track on an otherwise rather unmemorable album. The main riffs for Kingdom of Oblivion and The United Debased are also decent enough, but not interesting enough to rely so heavily on their grooves. Lady May is also quite nice, but the album just never lifts off and also doesn’t feel cohesive at all so for me this is a pretty big miss, albeit with some quality parts here and there.
