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I thought it would useful to bring this further down the thread. Is anything missing?
2025-06-19/21 Freak Valley Festival Siegen Germany (sold out)
2025-06-28 Ranglerock Festival Bryne Norway
2025-07-03/06 Bear Stone Festival Slunj Croatia
2025-07-24/27 Herzberg Festival Burg Herzberg Germany2025-09-20 Kriston Fest Santana 27 Bilbao Spain
2025-10-09 Club “Mixtape 5” Sofia Bulgaria
2025-10-11 Aux Club Athens GreeceI am re-posting this because after I tried to edit it, it disappeared from the forum. Apologies for the duplication.
Prior to the recent tour a client/colleague asked me who I was going to see and why three times? She’s a late-50s Japanese American based in New York City, from a highly respected and well-placed family, and an expert in her chosen field of the history of Baroque and Renaissance art (very high-brow). We’ve never met in person but we’ve been working together for over ten years. I told her it was Motorpsycho and explained the repeat concerts in terms of the Grateful Dead, who I expected she might have heard of. Ha! It turns out she had been a little bit of a Deadhead in her college days, so understood exactly, and even described in her own words pretty much perfectly what I had tried to relay.
She then asked me to recommend something by them. So I suggested Phanerothyme. I just couldn’t imagine her freaking out to Timothy’s Monster, or Trust Us, or HMF, or DDU, for example, but Phanerothyme – great grooves, accessible songs, some recognisable musical references (East Coast US psych / Doors / Mamas and Papas …). She listened once and immediately bought it and stuck it on her happy, walking playlist! This was not the result I expected – I was dead happy :D
Phano was one of the two albums recommended to me by a friend when I first crossed the MP threshold. The other was Behind The Sun.
So I come at this as someone who didn’t hear Phano until 2017 – and with no prior experience of the band. I immediately loved it. And I still do. It’s my favourite of the three (LTEC, Phano, IALC), all of which I really like. I’m not so enamoured of Barracuda, but Fishtank is among my favourites – I remember the first time I heard it (possibly the third or fourth MP album I listened to) and being utterly blown away by Tristano – but that’s another story.
Phano continues to be one of my go-to albums, especially if I want a bit of a happy pick-me-up. And I just can’t get away from associating Go To California with sunny weather, so the album comes out a lot more in the summer months. From the quiet, gentle intoxication of her bedroom eyes, followed by the kinetic blast of For Free (especially the “Completely out of control …” part), all the way through to Geb’s whimsical vision of death (quite possibly one of my funeral choices), it’s a superb album that makes the heavy light and the dark bright. LOVE IT!
I’m just listening to Balthazaar and got me a great big Stranglers flashback – next up on the playlist: Rattus Norvegicus :)
I’ve listened to the album at least 15-20 times now, and I just love it. It hangs together well, it flows well, I like all the tracks (some more than others). Bloody great album!
Someone earlier in the thread suggested there may be an argument for claiming Neotzar as the best epic since Gullible’s Travails. I can’t get on board with that because, for me, NOX is head and shoulders above everything else. Nonetheless, Neotzar is a damned great epic. Kate Bush was the obvious reference people made regarding the opening section, and King Crimson is evoked during the heavy instrumental section. But I was very pleasantly surprised to find myself thinking of early Camel during the faster instrumental section that follows the Crimsonesque blowout.
I’m also currently enjoying the thought that the Three Frightened Monkeys might somehow be related to those X-3 Knuckleheads in Space.
Sometimes the hardest albums to get into are the ones with the biggest long-term payoff; and sometimes the easiest to get into run out of steam after several listens. In this case, I found the album both easy to get into and continuing to pay off with repeated listens. It’s a truly fantastic album.
I just received notice from Bandcamp that my CD is on its way.
@airguitarhero – I’m in the UK. Hopefully yours will be on its way soon, too.To Johnny and others who offered up LZIII (my favourite LZ album) as an answer to my query, yes, that is most likely and was the first thing I thought of when I heard the beginnings of Laird of Heimly. And I had a similar reaction when I heard Bed of Roses, and indeed also thought of T.Rex (as mentioned by another observer up the thread). But something else is niggling away at me. I think I’ll pop LZIII on and see if anything specific leaps out.
So far, so good. I’ve only listened to the first disc (the first seven tracks) so far, but I have given it about four “spins” and I love it. Not a duff song on it – though I find The Comeback doesn’t do it for me quite like the rest of these first seven songs. Balthazaar is easily my standout favourite – strewn with Snah’s typically wonky mannerisms, especially the keys, but fantastically kept in the addictive groove by Bent and Ingvald. Can’t wait to hear this live. Bed of Roses, which I love, really reminds me of someone (esp. the vocals), but I just can’t put my finger on it. Anyone else? Like others who have commented above, Stanley has grown on me massively in the context of the album. And although I keep waiting for Snah to explode on Lucifer, the restrained guitar lead does help keep that track on course (not that veering off course isn’t welcome, or beyond this band). I wonder if this lead was Bent – it doesn’t really sound like Snah’s style of playing to me.
I have a feeling it’ll be a couple of days yet before I venture onto disc 2 – I’m just so entranced by disc 1!
Kanaan and Ævestaden – Langt, langt vekk
I just became aware of this album by Kanaan and Ævestaden. A beautiful heady mix of trad. and modern folk combined with a psych-jazz-stoner fusion.
@punknotyet Agreed. Child of the Future! Pleeeeaaaaase.
@nicoot – ha ha! I already have my eurostar train booked, leaving Brussels on the 2nd. In any case, I’m not even sure I’ll handle three shows in three nights. Four in four just might send me over the edge!
I’m looking at another excursion from the UK, this time to Amsterdam, Nijmegen, and Leuven. Hope to see some of you there!
