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A (not so) subtle homage to Lark's Tongues In Aspic in there by Snah
After the first spin I'm very happy with the album, and I know there'll be a lot to digest in there – lots of exiting stuff :STG:
On the title track: The middle "noise" part makes 100% perfect sense if you factor in the lyrics. There's perhaps even a tiny nod towards Jimi Hendrix at woodstock (SSB) 😀 Really starting to like this tune. As always….fuck me in forgetting that the growth will come
I'm usually late on commenting on a new MP album. And, somehow…I#ve to dig deeper into the
cosmos. But I liked the first side of my edition very much. LUX AETERNA is a bit different
to my first encounter in Bielefeld. Psychotzar is as heavy as they can do but also adding
very much different sounds as well. I think it'll take a while until I get used to that.
But…quoting VdGG…yes. Bent, Reine and me talked about that last November. My favourite
progressive band ever. Who the fuck is KC? Nah, sorry, let's settle down on a great "Dark Star -> The other one" from the real explorers of mind and sound in rock history.
BTW…as I said that ELEPHANT 9's "the greatest show on earth" is my favourite album from
2018…the AMGALA TEMPEL album scratches on that throne. Have a listen! All worth doing!
Not a review but a commentary made by Ando Woltman of King Midas
Quote:En gang befant jeg meg på kunstmesse i Berlin, vandrende rundt i en gigantisk trikkestall i bydelen Wedding. Det må ha vært i installasjonskunstens gullalder, på den tiden da kunstnere gjerne bygget og stilte ut fullt operative barer og kinoer, hallen var full av byggverk. Dette var den tredje største messen i byen den helgen, et slags alternativ til alternativet, og enn så interessant kunsten så ut var det en liten, snerpete vaktmesterstemme inni meg som stadig spurte: Men hvor blir den av etterpå, all denne kunsten? Kjøres den på dynga? Er dette særlig miljøvennlig, da?Kunstformen musikk har heldigvis fordelen av å være gjennomsiktig. I hvert fall helt til plateselskapene begynner å gi ut kostbare samlebokser og de luxe-utgaver, for ikke å snakke om musikkbøker og annet merchandise innkjøpt i blodtåke. Er du fan av et band som fyller 30 år, har du garantert noen titalls hyllecentimetere i papp, plast og størknet olje nær stereoanlegget, samt noen utvaskede T-skjorter innerst i skapet. Og hadde det vært en Spellemannspris for kontinuitet og antall utgivelser hadde Motorpsycho vært aktuelle kandidater hvert eneste år. Deres kreative kran har kun én innstilling: åpen.Til feiringen av sitt 30-årsjubileum gir trøndertrioen like godt ut et splitter nytt album. Tittelen på The Crucible kan oversettes til smeltedigel, men også spille på Arthur Millers berømte drama med samme navn, om hekseprosessene i Salem – en allegori for senator Joseph McCarthys jakt på kommunister i 50-tallets USA. Begge tolkninger må sies å passe godt til et band som har holdt frikerflagget høyt hevet siden 80-tallet, og som med sitt unike amalgam av prog, space jazz, psykedelia og heavy rock aldri har strøket noen med hårene. Dette er et album med mye av alt, selv til Motorpsycho å være, og med neandertalske rockeriff, komplekse rytmemønstre, orkestrale crescendoer og lyriske strekk låter det like (unnskyld uttrykket) episk og livsbejaende som i 89.
Det finnes nemlig en annen akse også: tid. Nei, så blir det visst heller ikke i dette livet at jeg får lyttet meg gjennom den greske sangeren Nana Mouskouris 450 album. Ei heller den japanske støykunstneren Merzbows 401 (litt under ett album i måneden siden 1980) eller livsverket til den indiske Guinness-rekordholderen Pulapaka Susheela Mohan, som har spilt inn opp mot 17 695 låter. Jeg har Bowie-bokser og en påbegynt outtake-serie av Pink Floyd å ta meg av her! For ikke å snakke om The Bootleg Series med Miles Davis & John Coltrane. I seks volumer.Motorpsycho har for lengst begynt å gi ut egne musikalske obelisker, i form av særs utvidede bokser med albumklassikere, liveinnspillinger og bestillingsverk. Så får det bli opp til hver enkelt fan å sjekke oppsparte timer og røde dager man kan avse. Kanskje ligger oppskriften hos Joseph Fink og John Darnielles mye hedrede podkast, I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats, som tar for seg det Oslo-aktuelle kultbandets karriere låt for låt. Foreløpig med 17 av angivelig over 600 episoder i boks.
Ok, så er fysisk format er et farlig stoff å bli hekta på, men jeg er villig til å gi Motorpsycho dispensasjon her. Å følge dette bandet utfolde seg på skyhøyt nivå i sanntid er et nesten ærefullt lytteroppdrag. Men spar meg gjerne for alt det ekstra. Her om dagen hørte jeg et intervju med Englands fremste spesial- og de luxe-utgave-samler. Han hørtes ut som en veldig trøtt mann.
Second impressions after listenening to the whole thing twice today:
Psychotzar is a really great heavy track, albeit a little bit too long. I would have done without the last prog movement – it dilutes the character of the piece a little. Nevertheless – great one! The gong and all the other pomp fully in place on that one, given the theme of the song.
Lux Aeterna really grew on me – still not the shivering down the spine I felt when listening to the first live recordings, but a wonderful song, if a little bit too long (same as above).
That brings me once again to Side II: What a monster! Probably the best long song MP wrote after Un Chien (if you consider Year Zero and Lacuna Sunrise middle length numbers – in MP terms at least). Complicated and rather simplistic at the same time! Bents bass riffs save the composition from being overtly proggy. Great great guitar playing. Same for the drums – Bent and Tomas make a fantastic rhythm group these days. Not too many musical themes to distract you (like for example on "Gullible's Travails", where the composition really leads nowhere imho). Clever repetition of themes towards the end. Quite Lark's Toungs at first listen, but much friendlier and quite playful. Can't wait to hear that thing live – probably I'll skip waiting for Cologne in autumn and get myself a Wiesbaden ticket in addition.
first listen. first impression: very dark and partly sad. i feel the album is perfect in every sense. fantastic sound, really top notch.
Listened to the new album today for the first time, four times in a row, in different order of songs, I came to the conclusion it's an epic masterpiece. Wow. Epic. Master. Piece.
Quote:it's missing that X-factor of the unexpected and inspiredThat's a scathing verdict! I hope you'll find the x-factor eventually. Really looking forward to your review in a few weeks.
I haven't listened to The Crucible yet, but basically every new-record-listening-session starts with a big disappointment and "ends" with pure excitement (weeks or months later).
A bit on the strong side, perhaps. I haven't had time to listen more in detail, so my comments were very off-the-cuff. As I said, my opinion may very well change. I have absolutely no reservations about the *quality* of the music, playing and production. The quality is sky high, as always. Plenty to dig into. It's just that The Tower had this extra factor of the band sounding desperate, hungry and there was a certain "necessity" to the music. Plus, being a double album, it allowed them to display all their sides. The Crucible sounded, on first listen, much more like a "genre" record.
Great record, great lyrics and vocal sound. I listen with some good closed headphones on Spotify, the bottom sounds very rich and of course there are many nice, interesting guitar sounds. The whole thing is maybe a little bit more compressed than we’re used too?
Listened to the record twice.
Not particularly impressed, but I like it!
The Crucible has some amazing parts that I really like, also I love long tracks, so…
Lux Aeterna is a great song too, a few links with VDGG and King Crimson which might be a minus for some are quite funny for me, and there are many beautiful things to discover yet.
Psychotzar is (interestingly) the one that least got me, but I'm quite sure that a live performance will be enough to make me change my mind. Heavyness is often not percieved by listening to records, you have to be there…like On a Plate, when I first heard it live it blew me away while it was a song I didn't particularly like before.
Oh, nothing wrong with gongs and cowbells, they fit perfectly in the song!
Actually, at the third listening, I'm already statting to like it more
Caught myself whistling the title track while taking a shower this morning :lol:
And: at my local ElderYouthPlayRecords club the evening before I've played them Hogwash from the Four Norsemen Of The Apocalyps dvd, after which the Knights of the Turntable were silent for a minute and then one of the gentlemen remarked: after this, what is there to put on next!
After a couple of spins, I have to say that I don't like the album. Out of context, it is a solid hardrock/psych/prog album, but in the context of MP being the best band in the world and in the context of the explorations of the last 10 years I find it rather boring to be honest. The production is technically brilliant and transparent, but it lacks balls and grit. As much as I cherish the steam train attitude of releasing one album after another after 30 years of being a band, I hope that they take a little more time for the next one and come up with something fresh and inspired.
I’m with you, marc. Its a «luksusproblem», as you would put it in norwegian. My expectations are sky high for these guys, and I am disappointed
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