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Somehow I expect to hear something totally unheard of by Motorpsycho. And their most brilliant album ever. I’m totally overhyped. More than ever before. Weird. I mean there’s no real reason for that….
Well – if you imagine to have the new power-trio-live-energy captured in adequate sound for the first time, you might feel be on the right track
Neil Tesor: great news, http://mp3.platekompaniet.no/ actually works, a no bull mp3 store.
@ TvdRight,
Oops, that was a extreme case of Short-Term Memory Loss or Shallow Reading Syndrome
Only two cents lost.
Love you too man! (‘Get you a case of beer for that’)
and I’m quite sure I won’t be. Au contraire. It’s like GBD wrote.
Yesterday I received a copy of the new album. “What, you mean the official release? How could this be?” I hear you say. Well, yesterday I received an official promo* for Heavy Metal Fruit since I write for the Dutch e-zine File Under (http://www.fileunder.nl). This is a first for me since it’s the first time in the six years that I write for FU that I got an offcial promo for a Motorpsycho-record. Needless to say that I’ve been jamming this record endlessly within the last 24 hours.
To further up the excitement about this new record I would like to share some thoughts about the album with you guys**.
First of all: This just might be the Best Motorpsycho-Album Since Timothy/AADAP/Trust US/LLM (depending which is your favorite canonical album). Now, I’ve been saying this to myself and my friends since LTEC was released but with this one I’m dumbfounded. This is the most complete record they ever made. I’m not saying this lightly.
A brief rundown of the songs:
The record kicks off with Starhammer, which has a very soft, building intro until 1:22 when the main riff kicks in. And what a riff it is! Majestic. Wonderful. The song then veers into a heavy, proggy song until we get halfway and we’re in jamland. A very subtle jam, based on a syncopated bassdrum-pattern. Snah keeps it very minimal. The final part is astounding.
X-3 starts off as a driving rocksong in the vein of the old 90’s stuff mixed with some Barracuda-style seventiesrock. Kapstadt’s playing is very remarkble since to me it feels like he’s playing the songs in a way that Gebhardt would do.
Yes, I’m surprised about that too. Let me repeat that: Kapstadt plays like Geb would do in a lot of parts.
There has been some discussion over here about Kenneth’s frenetic drumstyle when he is in a jazz-mood. The Child Of The Future-record was based on this playing style, in my humble opinion, and LLM was also filled with it. But on Heavy Metal Fruit he keeps it mostly down-to-earth and very functional in the verses and choruses. Of course there are still moments when he goes off, like later on in The Bomb-Proof Roll or W.B.A.T. (more on these two later). But overall his playing is in the pocket and very related to the song.
Bomb-Proof is based on a 7/4 shuffle-beat and has a very trippy main-melody (“Round round round we go, always slightly faster”). The vocals on this one are very lush and harmonic, very layered, and the grande finale features a lot of voices going on at once, so I’m curious how they are going to cope with this monster in a live-situation. The jamming halfway veers into free-jazz territories before they reach the final part.
Close Your Eyes splits up the record and is the only short piece with it’s 3:40. A very nice piano-ballad with really nice vocals by Bent. A great cooling down-piece after the previous songs, and a great moodsetter for the final two.
W.B.A.T. starts off with a seventies-jazzrock group-solo, with frenetic off-beat playing by Kapstadt, Bent following suit and Snah in jazz-mode. The interaction displayed over here is astounding. I actually took this album to rehearsal yesterday with my jazz-combo (yes, I’m a jazz-guitar-player) and my drummer was floored. Suddenly, the main riff kicks in and we’re back Motorpsycho-land. The main riff reminds me somewhat of a slower Coal Mine Pony-thing, and I also have the feeling this wouldn’t have been a bad fit on the Baracuda-EP if they had made a compact song with just this riff. But they first go into a solo and it isn’t until very late into the song that the chorus comes in at 6:28. And what a chorus it is! From there on they build the sweeping, lush melody into a mega-orchestral buildup. You gotta hear this. Best song of the album for me.
And then we have the Epic-To-End-All-Epics, Gullible’s Travails. This song has so many moods, shifts, melodies and parts that I’ve not yet had the time to fully absorb this monster-piece. But I’m willing to bet that this one will go down history in the same canon as Un Chien D’Espace, Golden Core and Vortex. An unbelievable piece of progrock.
Another point of notice: the production is fantastic. This is the best sounding/recorded Motorpsycho album. Seriously. It has the audiophile-qualities and eye for detail of the pop-era albums (LTEC/Ph/IALC), combined with the looseness in playing and performance displayed on LLM and COTF.
All in all, this is Motorpsycho at it’s best. Definitely more prog, more jazz, and more diverse than ever before. This could have been a mess on a scale that The Mars Volta wouldn’t even dare reach***, but it’s because of the fantastic arrangements, immense diversity, melodies to die for and overall execution/performance that Motorpsycho is able to sidestep all the pitfalls of progrock (like boring noodling, lyrical pretention, technical display and massive cheesiness). This is progrock at it’s most creative.
So now we’re not even halfway through january and it’s very likely that I already have my favorite album of 2010. Unbelievable.
*Don’t worry, I already pre-ordered both the vinyl and CD and I promise to Stickman and Motorpsycho not to leak this promo
**Now, I’ve been a fan of MP for years and years so I could be a little biased, but I’ve tried to keeps this essay somewhat objective (though I might have failed on this point)
***Not a fan. ATDI was much better.
Wow! Thanks Marty! Seems like there is an agreement among the reviewers that this is going to be a classic. Exciting!
@Vorsla: Really? I think Barracuda is a great record! Not as versatile and experimental as the “classic” albums, but still, I think the style and groove on this record is amazing! If this style is mixed with jazz and prog elements (as Marty mention above) I can’t imagine how good this can be!
Supernaut, I’ve already heard the album and it’s GOOD! But they’ve already made their best record(s) in my humble and strictly personal meaning
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