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Good lord what a behemoth Motorpsycho is these days! And that Thomas fella! 8O
Highlights for me: Everything from LLM onwards. And The Crucible felt really pertinent, it is a song for the times we live in, it felt significant somehow.
"there is way more substance and darkness in those records than the relatively banal and 2DÂ Trust Us-era albums that are actually pretty cartoonish in places."
Haha, that's a fairly harsh review of your own body of work, particularly as it is the era that so many keep in so high regard. Oh well, if you ever doubted MP is a living, forever evolving organism.
A little bit of possible background to this. The National Report on Wolves in Norway was made, amongst others, by NTNU (The University in Trondheim). I just noticed on the news here in Norway that the report was presented by Professor in Biology Hans Kristian Stenøien. Hmmm. Where else do we know him from? What about 'Tonight We Bloom' by Hans Stenøien & Sugarfoot? I suspect a tiny bit of nepotism here!
A great little tune it is, as well
Lol. Thinking of how MP heavily referenced Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in KoO press releases and such, have they cleverly also recreated it's rather hostile reception by a bewildered and confused audience struggling with the avantgarde?
Damn I'm out of town on the fifth. If you can't make it to see them live, any and all of their records are highly recommended.
A short clip from the woods in Fjaler
I wasn't there myself, but this appeared on the theatre festival's facebook page. That looks like quite the gig.
Those are very good points. Both this particular song and the album as a whole is quite varied, and both in a organic way that feels natural and your observations about how a lot of people write and talk about the albums as 'proggy', 'straight rocking' and so on are also spot on. Why does those initial labels stick?
The press release at Rune Grammofon may indicate an answer: 'The initial idea was to collect big riffs on one album and do a pure hard rock record' it says, and 'the main musical thrust is pretty full-on, even by Motorpsycho standards'. I guess it is easy to get coloured by that, you have an entry point to a new album, and I suppose a lot of reviewers also go to the album with that in the back of their mind, not because the are lazy or bad but just because that's how the mind works. And then the those characteriations get repeated and take on a life on their own. (Heck, I know people who still are under the impression that MP is that alternative, heavy, noisy outfit it was 1991-1993!)
As per usual with an MP album it turns out to not to be quite that easy (as in fairness Rune's press release also says), they are usually more multifaceted than that, and yet having that unmistakable and everpresent Motorpsychoness that shines through in their songwriting, arrangements and playing, and those (like most of us in this forum) who listen will discover that, and rediscover and reappreciate albums again.
Watching this guy discovering MP was quite nice though. That grin on his face!
Lol. I am afraid it is like this "data thing" in 1990 that would "go away soon". The only thing that would make the streaming platforms change practices is if the major artists forced them to. There is no way consumers in significant numbers would unite to force changes through. For 99.9% of music streamers worldwide it works just fine: All the music in the world conveniently at your fingertips for very little money.
(sorry for going off topic)
Yup. Next to nothing is pretty much exactly what it is. I checked this out once, and exactly how much the artist get per stream even by the same streaming provider varies depending on location, royalty rates, currency and other variables. Some typical per-stream figures for different streaming platforms: Napster $0,019 / Tidal $0,01283 / Apple Music $0,00783 / Spotify $0,00437 / Youtube $0,00069, meaning you will have to play a song about 240 times on Spotify in order for the band to get 1 USD (or about 80 times using Tidal), if my maths is up to scratch. I confesss I use Spotify nevertheless, it is just too useful checking out new stuff, playing when I’m on the move, and for making playlists.
On the other hand, I also have bought every single MP record at least once (and generally buying too much music according to my missus) so I actually end up paying them more: when I buy the record and then again a little bit every time I play a MP playlist or an album on Spotify. My bold conclusion is therefore as long as you also buy the music physically Spotify is beneficial for all parties. If you only use streaming services not so.
Sweet Jesus! I was out of breath after the NOX experience, even if it was a sitting down event! Really powerful and evocative, visually as well as musically. And Thomas! I say no more.
Also, the staff at the venue had at least one videocamera in operation so let's hope something surfaces at some point for everyone to enjoy.
As Punj and supernaut says.
Very good points about lack of cohesiveness, variation and flow on albums. Sungravy as a stand alone track may not be in the top three category, but it is exactly what you need there and then: To go straight from the The Wheel to Grindstone on TM would be too much. And you absolutely need the calm and acoustic Delusion and A Little Light to cleanse you palate and take a deep breath before NOX and to come down and catch your breath again (or to get a little light) after. Generally I find their album sequencing and variation spot on.
Another interesting point is the one of saturation. Some people seem to struggle to appreciate Kingdom of Oblivion as it sounds too familiar to the Gullvåg trilogy, it came too soon and so on. The lack of appreciation of latter-day MP seem for some to be reinforced by the fact that the typical MP songs these days are not short traditional songs but parts stitched together or a stream of indistinguishable riffing, jamming and progging. Underdeveloped, aimless and pointless, and lacks the urgency and directness of the youthful 90’s work some ppl lamented somewhere on these forums. (Not me, it doesn’t ring true with me at all.)
But anyways, it got me thinking a little bit. I am wondering if the “aimless, pointless and lack of urgency†is a consequence of the song writing process. A little while ago I listened to Torgny Amdam’s podcast ‘Lage musikk’ (‘Make music’) with Bent. It is only in Norwegian so I am not sure to what extent what’s said here have been repeated to non-Norwegians. Here Bent talks about the song writing process of the last 5-10 years. It goes something like this: Typically Bent will sit down in front of the telly with an electric guitar or keys and record on his phone until the voice memory (and his head) is full of sketches, chords, riffs and ideas, text lines maybe. This will obviously have no premeditated idea of direction or style, nor any self-censoring. He will then go on to work out demos on Pro Tools, developing the material and piecing parts together. According to Bent, putting the different parts together is an intuitive process, he ‘knows’ when the song is right and when there’s a record there. Every now and then Bent is stuck and may involve Snah to get additional input to get unstuck, add new pieces, glue pieces together. He refers to making music as research or exploration.
Bent specifically says that the method now is different from the writing process in the 90’s which was much more classical song writing. Bent also states that he is bored of what he refers to as the Beatles school of song writing (short, conventional, “perfect†pop songs) and feels that there is not more to get from that for him personally or in music generally. Been there, done to death, moved on.
And what else can you do other than to respect that?
