Black hole – no canvas

[Ivan]

ey, mr. nelson… stay cool! i had exactly the same feelings/toughts about LTEC! and that was a real style-breaker. PH was not much better and IALC was (still is) the worst album they made… you can imagine how i felt in that time.

BUT:

be patient. LTEC and PH i don´t want to miss today! (and even IALC has some great tunes on it). the music keeps growing.

AND:

there will come another album.

AND AND:

"live" they will alway kick your a.. :MPD:

[mr. nelson]

Phanerothyme is indeed a pop album, but not a concept album where all the musical parts are thematically and musically linked…They have also not used a modular approach to record it…

[GBD]

Well that's the beauty of our beloved band. You never know what you're gonna get next. Sure, they've made heaps of wonderful short pop/rock songs. But all the way back to the Demon Box era you could see their sense of adventure, trying new things (the introduction of Deathprod, the long drony songs like the wheel and TGC, the tussler album, acoustic ditties like thuesday morning and feel, popish songs like junior and now it's tome to skate). They've done it all. And all in the spirit of MP (you can't argue that they've kept their sound all the way through even though their music has changed).

And now, since the introduction of KK, they've added some prog elements into their music. Big deal! They still sound great, the energy is there aswell as their song craft. It's just the next level in a pretty impressive evolution, but at the same time with a signature sound. No other band sound like MP no matter what they do, and never will. And that's the bottom line if you ask me.

Becides….it's always been a big thing with Bent not to grow stale in a specific genre. Like mentioned in the recent dagbladet interview –

"- Det er farlig med rutiner i musikk. Det blir fort stivt og døvt. Jeg synes det er bra vi fortsatt kan være et alternativ etter tjue år i bransjen"

Roughly translated to "It's dangerous with routine within music. It can easily get stiff and "dumb". I think it's good that we can still be an alternative after 20 years in the business"

This is one of many statements bent has made about not becoming stale. They've always been adventurous and keen on trying new things. So their new found love for long and proggy songs isn't that strange. And so, with such an impressive effort like TDDU (imo), i say; Let them have their fun. Let them muck around with some fiddle and sax. Cus in the end, it's all good. If i were you, i'd stop dissing on the small things, and start seeing the album as a whole. Quite impressive if you ask me.

And who knows…..the next album could easily be a return to shorter songs.

Also, after such a hurdle race (to quote snah) like BH/BC was, it's not that hard to understand their need to stretch things out abit, and jam

[TraktorBass]

mr nelson, I too long for a pop-suite, it would be ridiculously comfortable and engaging to listen to, I bet. Phanerothyme and beyond!

edit: I'm serious. But I also really, really love the new stuff.

[Elvin]

All this talk about the "pop" mp, I must say I really think side 4 has this Cake->Love Cult vibe. Maybe start there.

I can see why this record isn´t everyones cup of tea, with all the fancypancy "progshit" going on. As with all MP albums there are things that work and things that don´t. I dont dig this as much as everyone else, but stylewise The unicorn isn´t that big departure that some want it to be. I can´t imagine anyone not "feeling" motorpsycho on Through the Veil for example. It´s classic "stonerrock" mp, with an extra layer of some horns, but still.

Besides this isn´t a Motorpsycho record, it´s a Motorpsycho & Ståle Storløkken record.

Here´s to the next Motorpsycho record

[supernaut]

I can't understand why music is considered prog and fancypancy artsy in a negative way as soon as there are other instruments than drums and guitars used. There's a riff played on a violin instead on a guitar and some people go nuts (for good and bad, though ).

The main reason why Motorpsycho are still together is their evolving nature. I'm pretty sure there won't be a Blissard 2.

[supernaut]

Quote:

Besides this isn´t a Motorpsycho record, it´s a Motorpsycho & Ståle Storløkken record.

Here´s to the next Motorpsycho record [:cheers:]

true. more respect (or blame) to him. :mrgreen:

[jtr]

@supernaut: indeed. Also, add horns to rock music = jazz. But of course it doesnt work like that Oh and there have been violins on Blissard, AADAP and of course many other MP records as well.. I wonder if there were any fancyprog-accusations back then.

[mr. nelson]

True there is lot of other instrumentation except for drums, bass and guitars on other albums as well…some of it actually fits quite well into the music…Man just listen to songs such as sun gravy….the outro of demon box…and even the very first track on the first record…violin and that´s just ok…even Siddhartino is ok in its context…Nevertheless no one wants 30 minutes of siddhartino…and this album, is in my opinion, loaded with weird tracks. Wtf is this Sculls in Limbo??? Furthermore…listen to La Lethe….sounds like something from norwegian Kirkelig Kulturverktsted gone terribly wrong…and I am really afraid of sharks after listening to this album…

All the good Crimson, Yes, ELP albums has one weird track, some of them are not good standing alone, but they fit into the context…Unicorn has this overweight of weird tracks… Mutiny is a brilliant one I agree, but it doesn´t weigh up for the lack of good tracks though

[tskogseth]

I have just listened to the album once, so I will withhold complete judgment until I have played it a few times (it was available for download from Amazon.com at midnight, which is when I got it) – I will get the physical copy as well, of course, but for now, the digital copy will do – but what Mr. Nelson is going through is something I have survived a couple of times with MP. I started following MP around the same time – 1993 with Demon Box, and already in 1994, I was questioning my newfound love and devotion, because I did not like the production of Timmy. The songs were great, though, and the shows… The split show with L7 was spectacular – or maybe it was just that I was at the right place at the right time.

The last time I saw them live was during the Trust Us tour, and that to me was their peak. I struggled through their Baard-collaborations – it was filled with ups and downs for me – and then Gebhart left and BHBC was released… That was a huge downer for me. I still have an extremely hard time listening to that album – while the Baard albums really have grown on me. IALC may be questionable, but I get goosebumps from the dissonance in Custer's Last Stand. As for Timmy… Wow… Can't live without it anymore.

What happened after they brought Kenneth into the fold is that their albums sound like their shows from the 90s – like they really love what they are doing. In my eyes they are peaking again, just like they did in the 90s when they couldn't do anything wrong in my eyes. LLM, HMF – great albums. I still want CotF on CD – I don't have a record player anymore – but what they have done up until this point with Kenneth has blown me away. And I really like what I have heard from the Unicorn – even though I've only played through it once. It is exciting. The arrangements are challenging at times – and sometimes they are just straight forward and solid. I look forward to playing it over and over again.

However, if I hadn't liked it, just like with BHBC, I would just move on. There is no need to rail against a band because you don't like what they are doing now. You can be disappointed. You can even voice your opinion. But declaring them all dead for you – I find it a little over-the-top. It reminds me of the reactions to Opeth's Heritage – they weren't metal enough anymore… I don't mind anyone sharing, or even venting, I just really don't understand it. It is just a band. It is my favorite band – still – but it is just a band.

For me, the one thing that always brings me back to MP is that they do whatever the hell they want to do. And I respect them for that. I clearly haven't liked everything they released. I have liked even less of it when they released it, but then again, I never expected to. What really has been good for me is that my tastes have evolved alongside MPs – and they have often mirrored each other. I can't ask for more than that – whether I end up loving the Unicorn or just liking it. I already know I don't hate it – so it is the degree of liking that is in question.

[jtr]

@tskogseth: another great example you brought forward. Heritage by Opeth. I love that record! And I watched the making-of-DVD they put in with the special edition, and they said they recorded it like they did just because it felt right. So what if some people expected something else and cant accept it? As an artist, that cannot be your concern.

[supernaut]

Mr nelson, I do respect your critique and find it actually quite entertaining how you put it. I hope you'll change yr mind one day about the Unicorn. As stated by the band, this one isn't classic Motorpsycho but a collaboration and therefore we can't really say anything about the band's current way, be it lost, weird, stubborn or genius. The next proper release might win you (and others) back.

On a sidenote: What's the problem with BHBC? So many people have troubles with that one. To me it's no different to other typical MP rock albums and has almost only brilliant standout songs. And come on! Bent is an amazing drummer! If that had been a new guy, they really should have kept him as a substitute for the Geb (being unaware of Kenneth at that point in time).

[tskogseth]

@Supernaut: I'm no all that sure I know why I didn't like BHBC – I am guessing that part of it was the loss of Gebhart. But I really can't listen to No Evil. I don't like the song – it's too bland, too blah… The intro riff is good, but they've done that type of song better before. And that's when I stop. It doesn't happen often, but the opener has stopped me from liking the album. I guess it confirmed my suspicion that mp without geb would be dead and gone. Irrational? Yup. And I changed my mind after Kenneth arrived, but BHBC is a black hole for me.

[deusvlc]

BH/BC has some of the, I defined, "space rock" songs I imagined they were supposed to do in the next couple of albums… like Critical Mass, Sancho Says, The Ace (superb), You Lose..

or Serpentine and Custer's Last Stand from IALC or some parts of LLM like She Left On The Sun Ship. But you know then arrived Kapstad and they came to this, and I'm sure is the right path to themselves.

[supernaut]

No Evil I think was played live very often during that time, contrary to other BHBC songs, so the band must have loved it. It's not one of my faves on the album but it's still a song I'd be happy to manage to write myself. The first one I heard off it was In Our Tree on a Visions (german print mag) Sampler CD and I was a bit underwhelmed. I felt it didn't match the energy of other songs on that CD, although I didn't really like any of those bands. But within BHBC it shone immediately. Now I love its arrangement and especially the chorus. Double album, 17 carefully crafted songs. I think Bent and Snah worked to their strengths on it and wanted to prove something. Maybe their alarmed state of mind was also the reason why it has more fast songs than any other MP release. Reminds me of Zeppelin's Presence, which was made in a very fragile state, too and I love its atmosphere.

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