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Ok, so I chose a provocative title to get your attention. But as I have stated elsewhere, I am not too convinced by the latest one. I don’t like the sound/mix, I don’t like the sequencing and the balance of the material, and overall I don’t think there’s enough interesting material to justify yet another double album. However, I love Motorpsycho’s double albums. They are usually at their best when they don’t try to limit their scope or focus on a particular genre, rather let it all hang out, the bright and the dark, the heavy and the light, the complex and the simple, the stupid and the clever side by side.
I was similarly also not entirely convinced by The All Is One, it felt lopsided with the NOX suite being such a highlight, and the comparatively weak opening (IMO) although over time I have come to really like most of the tracks on the home stretch. I don’t think they sit nicely beside NOX though, as it overshadows everything else.
I don’t have KOO on vinyl yet so I don’t have the recording credits, but as I understand it most of the material is from the same sessions that produced the «regular» AIO tracks, is that right? If so, I think they had a much stronger album on hand if they had released NOX on its own and made a more traditional double album out of the «normal» AIO tracks and the KOO tracks, culling the best from each. Then maybe release an EP of the leftover material.
I think there was a similar situation in 2013-14. Lots of great material, but the era didn’t produce a strong album all the way through. Across Eggplant, Behind the Sun and Motorpnakotic Fragments there is a really, really good double album and great EP or two.
So how would you arrange the most recent material in the world where you are executive Motorpsycho producer and caller of shots? I don’t care if you think this is a silly exercise, it’s part of the fun of being a music nerd to second-gues our heroes. So this is a call of arms to all the backseat drivers and armchair experts out there!
I am not entirely sure yet how I would do it, and it would be interesting to know a little about the sessions, but I can say for sure that I would releas NOX as a stand-alone album. I think it would have been great if they said «here, this is it, our new album». Something completely different from every album before it, a radical shift. Forcing people to pay attention, and letting the suite shine as the glorious achievement it is. It would rank way high in the Motorpsycho discography, definitely top 10 album for me and possibly top 6.
The more typical double album that would follow it would have some of the darker KOO stuff alongside the lighter material from AIO. Not sure yet quite what I would include and what I would leave out, but I am pretty sure I would lose the title track from both. AIO (the song) was pretty embarassing IMHO, and KOO (the song) would be a cool standout EP track, but pales as a central/deep album track (again IMO). So a «lost title track» EP might be something.
Tell me your thoughts.
I completely disagree, and will therefore not play (no fun i'm sure, but it gives me yet another chance to underline just how much i'm loving KOO)
I’m with you on this.
I would have released an EP with NOX.
And then compiled a double album out of KoO and the rest of AIO, leaving out Comorant, the AIO title track and all of the D Side of AIO.
Talking about AIO the track: it has something in it I like. But overall it’s too uninspired. I think this song is something they should have still worked and save it for some later release. Same with the AIO D-Side.
The KoO title track is one of the best on the new album, imo.
Maybe you should keep it in the back of your mind for the right mood? I’m sure, you can dig into it someday :wink:
I agree. I've been thinking the same a lot lately – that besides all the youthful energy, place in time etc (both band and me) that made all those stone cold classic 90s albums so great, was that they also had tons of EPs to fill out with, eh, the "fillers".
Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE Motorpsycho, but they can be a bit uneven. Part of being experimental and seeking band I guess, sometimes you discover crap, but it might be worth the try. Also, not a big fan of prog and technical wankery.
Generally speaking, make shorter albums (and more EPs!).
To make things easy, I'm starting with the Rune G period, an alternative universe where the Rune Grammofon has a evil label boss who won't just release anything. I'll leave all the live albums, as is, but probably release a bunch more. Same with the few 7"s.
Little Lucid Moments
– as is, but the LP version has an extended drone/blissout 20 min version of She left on the sun ship.
Child of the Future – as is
Heavy Metal fruit – as is
The Death Defying Unicorn LP:
A: Out of the Woods
The Hollow Lands
Through the Veil pt 1
B:Through the Veil pt 2
Doldrums
Into The Mystic
Something fishy Tour 10" EP
A: Sculls in Limbo
La Lethe
B: Into the Gyre
Floatsam
Hell 10" EP
A: Hell pt 1-3
B: On a Plate
Hell pt. 7
Behind the Sun 2LP
A: Cloud Walker
The Promise
August
The Magic and the Wonder
B: Hell pt. 4-6
Ghost
C: Ratcatcher
The Afterglow
"secret" untitled drone piece 1 /2 ( as today)Tour 7"
A: Hell pt 7 (live – video version)
B Entropy (7" edit)
The fragments work as it is, a bunch of ok- to ok+ leftovers in excellent packaging.
Here Be Monster 2LP
Gets expanded to include the actual song and Go `round Once.
The Tower LP
A: Intrepid Explorer
In every dream house
The Maypole
B: A pacific sonata
ASEF
Bartok of the Universe EP
A: Bartok of the Universe
Psychozar (3 min edit)
Lux Aterna ( 2:30 min acoustic lo-fi bedroom version)
B: The crucible ( this song now stops after 15 minutes)
The All is One LP
A:Dreams of Fancy
The Downser
NOX2
B: NOX4
The Magpie
For the Tour: The Same old Rock B/W Delusion 7"
Kingdom Of Oblivion LP
This is quite fresh, andI think I quite like it.
Anyway, the perfect version I think would be
At Empires End
The United Debased
Dreamkiller
Waning pt2
Lady May
A wankless Much Shorter Transmutation of the Cosmoctpus Lurker
Kingdom of oblivion
The Waning 10" EP
Collects the instruments, The waning pt 1, the watcher and the the hunt
@ Elvin: "The Watcher" as the darkest KOO number belongs to the LP version I think. Emphases the atmosphere
I'd suggest a final EP/Mini-Album in Barracuda Style with folk (-rock) tracks only. Probably one or two additional ones. I'd love that!
Ok i'll play alittle: Even though i really like the sequencing of KOO, it could have been interesting to regroup it as a half and half album. With the folky/mellow stuff on album 1 which finishes with Dreamkiller, and the hard hitters on album 2, finishing with the Lurker.
I will have to think about sequencing and such, but a few thoughts on the RG era albums:
Little Lucid Moments
Child of the Future
Heavy Metal Fruit
The Death Defying Unicorn
I would leave these as they are. LLM always felt a little unfulfilling to me, with the suite feeling a bit like three separate songs just strung together, She Left on the Sunship meandering in the second half and so on. In a way, I think this is where their self-editing started to lack a little and some LPs started to feel a touch bloated, but there’s nothing in particular I would axe. These albums are all fine as they are, some more succesful than others.
Still Life With Eggplant
Behind the Sun
The Motorpnakotic Fragments
Some serious editing and re-sequencing is in order here. I agree that the Motorpnakotic Fragments actually work quite well as a way of rounding up the material in a way that the EPs did in the 90s and early 00s. But I miss those EPs as they could be a home to tracks that didn’t quite make the cut for an LP. Either because they didn’t fit thematically or musically, or if it was a cover song, or if it was a weird one (Geb tracks) or if it just wasn’t quite a standout song, I feel that some songs on more recent albums would have been better off on an EP. It might shine in a setting like that, whereas it gets lost on an overly long LP. IMHO, many of the KOO tracks are like that.
In any case, one EP from the 2013-14 era that this particular executive producer and label head would demand, was a Hell pt 1-7 EP (almost more of a mini-album). I think that would make a really cool stand-alone release.
Still Life With Eggplant would never exist. Instead we would have a Behind the Sun album minus Hell pt 4-7 but featuring Barleycorn, The Jig Is Up Mockingbird and Forget It, maybe a few more (need to revisit this material and think about the sequencing). That would make it a fairly light, breezy and melodic album, a nice contrast with the Hell EP. Lead-off single would be Cloudwalker, also released on an EP like in the older days, with Whiskey and Rock and Roll (the fun number), August and Future of Our Nation (the cover songs). Ratcatcher, Dominoes and a few more would never see the light of day until the 20th anniversary reissue boxed set.
En Konsert For Folk Flest
Here Be Monsters
Begynnelser
I would leave these as they are. EKFFF obviously exists on its own terms. HBM…well, nothing can save that turd. Ok, ok….add the title track to make the misery complete, and maybe axe Spin Spin Spin as that is a typical EP track. Begynnelser is a weirdo collection anyway so doesn’t need any editing.
The Tower
The Crucible
These two are perfect as they are. The Tower is a warts-and-all type album (with very few warts), it feels urgent and necessary and drivne all the way through. Nothing should be added or removed. The Crucible is similarly strong, solid as a rock but just missing the last X factor to make it a true standout album. Nevertheless nothing needs to be changed,
The All Is One
Kingdom of Oblivion
The obvious thing here is to release N.O.X. on its own. It deserves and needs full attention and is so different from the rest of the material here. I love it to bits. The next album after that would be Kingdom of Oblivion (or alternate title The Waning. I really need to take a little more time to think about how best to combine the material from TAIO and KOO for the best result. I have decided the title track from KOO needs to be in there. It’s strong enough to deserve a spot on a double album, but in its current incarnation I think it has to carry too much weight, it’s not quite that strong.
Rough track listing suggestion, this needs more work to get the proper flow and I might have to find room for The Hunt and Delusion (The Reign of Humbug) somewhere:
Side A:
The Waning (minus part 2)
Kingdom of Oblivion
The Same Old Rock
Side B:
The Magpie
Lady May
The United Debased (with drastically different production and edited slightly)
Side C:
Dreams of Fancy
At Empire’s End
Side
A Little Light
The Transmutation of Cosmoctopus Lurker
Like Chrome
That leaves some material for an EP, either a stand-alone one (title track The All Is One perhaps?) or as a lead-off single (The Waning?). The Dowser, The Watcher and Dreamkiller would be on this EP. The former as the «Bent alone in his apartment» type track (it’s not quite that, but it serves the same purpose) and the latter two as both a cover song and a stranger kind of track that I don’t think works at all on the album, but might shine on an EP.
its a bit simpler to compose releases if you dont have to create them in the first place and then any how release them years after their creation. like performing great after the gig is over. it has no value.
I doubt that the band are very concerned that a few nerdy fans are having fun rearranging their albums, Aki.
And of course it’s easier in retrospect. But nevertheless I would make a case that their editing decisions in the 90s were better than recently, or so it would appear, Case in point; Timothy version 0 that was never released in favour of the vastly superior end result. Or leaving the When the World Sleeps material in the vaults. Or rearranging and remixing the original Blissard. All of these decisions led to much better results either by leaving out material or remixind and re-sequencing.
I gave my own «Hell» mini LP a spin this morning, and that would have made a great release, mixing the sludgy stoner-y stuff with the etheral, progressive and melodic and finally the brutal, tight and punchy ending, showing off all their sides in one neat suite. My re-imagined Behind the Sun would then make a nice «return to the songs» after the heavy and somewhat pretentious concept albums (Death Defying Unicorn and Hell).
Is anybody here ready to start talking about all the filler on Demon Box, Timothy's Monster, Blissard, AADAP, and Trust Us? I mean, how much better would TM have been if it was just Giftland, Watersound, The Wheel, Sungravy, and The Golden Core? All the rest of the stuff could then have just been released on EPs every month or two. How does that sound? Yep … sounds like the worst idea ever doesn't it. :twisted: :lol: :lol:
@ shakti: watch your fuckiing language
HBM: I love that "turd" – I consider it the best thing to come since god knows when – HMF probably. Of course there was new – and arguably even better stuff – following soon.
Hell mini-LP is a very good idea – especially as a Roadwork IV 1/2 live "Hell" album!
Probably the Düsseldorf version with the thunderstorm raging outside…
I love what Geb wrote in his piece on Black Hole / Blank Canvas for the Supersonic Scientists book. It could be relevant to any of their albums:
Quote:But damn it – can't they ever try brevity? I'm left with a feeling of exhaustion; this is just way too much motorpsychosis for me. It sounds like the box set version of Black Hole / Blank Canvas, with every outtake and demo they had lying about. The box set that should've come out years later. I can imagine a 40 minute version of this album – a stone cold classic. But that just wouldn't be Motorpsycho.
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