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I am just complaining, because I don't like the direction they are taking AT ALL! But surely I will be at the gig, which might be about the 20th to 30th I am attending.
OK. People don't have to like everything their favourite bands do. Nearly all my favourite artists have done something I'm not too keen on, but you've gotta respect them trying to do new things and not sticking to a formula. MP are no Status Quo! (No disrespect to Quo fans intended).
But what I love about MP is their innate sense of musicality. They are what I would call true 'musos'. They understand music in all its forms and can incorporate many of them into the things they do with success. They can make great sounding music which is varied, eclectic, but which is unmistakenly them, regardless of the styles or genres they are drawing from. That takes some doing, and its what I like most about them. There are many artists who would love to be able to produce music of the quality and variety that MP have over the years. I love Timothy's, Blissard, Trust Us et al, but Phanerothyme is one of my favourite MP albums ('Painting the Night Unreal' gets me every time!)
As for Unicorn…Genius? Not quite. It's a word when too easily used devalues things which truly are genius. But a great piece of music? I think so. And a worthy addition to the MP canon. It's very well written, very well performed, and it's definitely MP. It takes me on a great journey, and when I want to listen to Demon Box or LLM I can still slap them on my hi-fi and enjoy them as much as ever. Even if I didn't care so much for Unicorn, I wouldn't suddenly cast MP aside in disgust. I would love my favorite albums, and wait for the next MP offering, because if one thing's certain it will be different again!
And as for Unicorn performed live…well, live performance is a great leveller. I guess there won't be any orchestras or horn sections, and Staale is gonna have a hell of a lot to do, so this will be MP bare knuckled and in full flight. The London gig can't come soon enough.
Ok…maybe it's me getting old…and can not relate to things anymore…
My meeting with the unicorn is like the little boy's reaction to "the emperor's new clothes" like in the fairytale by H.C. Andersen…
I like prog. from the 70's, my favourite record is Close to the edge…I even like Tarkus by ELP…
but what the heck is this…this is freejazz…the picture in the cover with the band members in the boat…that is what it's all about…band members drifting down the river…ending up where ever???
Out of the woods sounds like the soundtrack of Karius and Bactus on an acid trip….until suddenly someone in the band says…oh we used to be a rock band let's play fuzz guitars…
The remaining tracks are all packed in some quasi violin intro's and shit…
Man I could understand it if lasted for 15 seconds….but several minutes….Jesus what's happening…???
When you listen to tree top drive by Deathprod, you know what you're in for…but MP used to have this melodic 4 track songs in between long and beautiful droners…what's happening…???
They should at least have made this some kind of project for people who are realy interested…this is not motorpsycho…this is motor jazz (free jazz so to speak)…
well…I will not complain anymore…I left the sinking ship right here…
…Nothing ever prepared me for this moment
How I wish I'd never (heard this album)
I never felt so powerless or broken…less equal and less free…
All is broken…our ship is sunk in the deep forever…all lost and gone…
Such a proud vessel…
in the depths forever
now the sun is gone and we're lost in the fog –
directionless, alone
Oh my mates, what're the odds we shall
ever reach our homeland?
What will become of us now?
Say no more…listeners it's all in there
They've given up…and this is all we're left with
I wished they ended it after child of the future which was a brilliant one
…and by the way the record has absolutly NOTHING to do with free jazz (tristano from in the fishtank was kinda free jazz, just to let you know…)…
Indeed, this record has nothing to do with jazz. I recommend listening to some jazz* for comparison. It is quite obvious, really. And seriously, stop lamenting about it and just listen to something you enjoy.
*Some of my picks: Thelonious Monk, Lionel Hampton, Jacques Loussier, Django Reinhardt, John Coltrane – and Sun Ra for the free jazz variant
Be
Quote:@supernaut: "Year Zero wipes the floor with Vortex Surfer" – I consider this blasphemy and am quite ready to put on my explosive belt to blow the unfaithfulls to hell!you'n'me at sunrise! outside! pick yr weapon!
What I wanted to point out in that posting there is that the band has moved on. YZ shows that VS wasn't the pinnacle of emotional immersion and there sure will be new MP songs in the future that will top YZ. Also I kinda heard VS too many times…
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I think mr nelson refers to jazz when he talks generally about structureless music beyond the verse/chorus formula. As in jazz = dissonant weird shit.
Which is kind of hard to understand coming from a prog lover, though.Well it's sad if the band doesn't do it for you anymore because they don't repeat themselves. I'm listening to Timmy right now and this will always be dear in my heart but if the band would have kept doing albums just like that one up till now, then I'd probably stopped listening to them and would only occasionally dig out the Timmy for ol'times sake.
TDDU has nothing to do with free-jazz, since most of the themes and melodies are written and specifically arranged and harmonized, whereas free-jazz is mostly improvising without borders.
That said, I can understand what the detractors are feeling. I too am a big fan of the nineties indierocking Motorpsycho-songcraft, and all these prog leanings are going further and further away from the template they set in the early nineties. TDDU might be the pinnacle of this evolution, since most melodies are quite abstract and require concentrated listening. Then again, I also have a strong background in jazz, so for me it's not really a struggle as much, though I do have to switch to another/different mindset. I make a similar switch when I listen to deathmetal or lo-fi, which require a different mindset than listening to Coltrane or Monk.
TDDU is massive and I already know that this is not going to be my most-played MP record (those would be the usual suspects: TM, B, AADAP, TU, BH/BC, LLM, HMF – actually, that's already quite a lot), but I also know that if I dig a little deeper I will definitely come to appreciate it more.
Furthermore, I'm absolutely not worried that MP might 'have lost it'. They have a unique place in music history together with bands like Sonic Youth, Frank Zappa and The Flaming Lips, who kept churning out greatness the deeper they evolved in their respectable careers. The kind of bands that ripe with age and get better and better at what they do. Even when they take a strong left-turn, like MP did this time.
Last post mentions Sonic Youth. I always had them in mind when thinking about a band that has a very distinctive sound and makes one beautiful record after the other without changing the style completely, like MP does. So there could be an evolution from Timmy without these wide gaps.
Another band that comes to mind is Radiohead. Ever developing and changing their style quite a lot, but still keeping that special something (although I have to admit that only some tracks on The King of Limbs are really getting close to me. But 'Codex'… what a song!). They are an absolute fantastic live band as well. I was at the Hurricane Festival 4 years ago and saw a lot of very good bands for 3 days, but when Radiohead closed the festival I had the impression I had seen only amateurs the whole time!
Funny you should mention Radiohead. That band used to be one of my favourites, if not THE favourite some ten years ago, before I discovered Motorpsycho. And as Radiohead progressed into other fields of music, I got less and less interested in them. I listened to the last record only very indifferently, its not my cup of tea anymore — and thats fine! There is plenty of other things to listen to, thankfully.
But I disagree with you on "changing the style completely" – sure, they did that with LTEC and Timmy is quite the departure from Demon Box, but the Unicorn for instance is – in my opinion – not much of a leap forward (or sideways, or whatever), it is quite a natural progression from HMF. To me, these two fit together very well.
After a meltdown and being in an alienated state of mind after the release of this album I am now coming to my senses again…
I just want to be more specific about what I´ve said earlier
When I drew a connection between this album and free jazz I thought of it as some kind of orchestrated free jazz where the band has been jamming and suddenly it is overdubbed in a sick way by jazz musicians
Right now I´m listening to Carn Evil 9 by ELP, what I will consider to be one of the greatest peaces of music ever written. This part of the legendary album from 1973 is pretty far out, even if compared with the unicorn…So I am contemplating what makes me like the ELP album and not the unicorn…I think it has something to do with the fact that Brain Salad Surgery is made by the band it self without the interference of jazz musicians… And all the far out parts, are in my opinion, connected together in an intricate but beautiful way…Progrock is art for gods and if you make mistakes you will fail to the fullest…I will even admit that the unicorn has its moments, but there is a vast ocean between these good parts…There is too much saxophone-intro-shit…it is not cool…it is not funny…it´s just annoying…and what is all this violin crap on flotsam??? I just don´t get it…
I like mp the best when they try to delimit their ideas and focus on the sheer brilliance of complex music in a shorter format…One of mp´s greatest moments has to Sinful Windborne…
Last year saw the release of an album that would´ve been one of the all time classics had it been released back in ´66. The Beach Boys Smile Album is a complex and beautiful album with shorter themes of music…
Imagine mp going that direction…making a pop concept album…Well it´s a dream even more far out than the unicorn album…but it would´ve been great…I guess I´ll have to keep on dreaming for a very long time…
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