Motorpsycho - You Gotta Hang On To The Trip You're On...

The only thing to do is to lay down in pure admiration. The seven songs are awsome. «Barracuda» is 33 minutes of snapping joy.

This minialbum is Motorpsycho's return to the landscape of classic rock. It may not be the most exciting landscape to play around in. You think. But the fact is that the "trøndersk" stealth-rock machine manages to give almost totally worn-out rock cliches new life. I can't understand how they do it. But they do. The only plausible explanation I can see, is that the trio has signed a backwards recorded contract with the rock'n roll devil himself. Robert Johnson paid with his soul when he signed his contract with the devil back in the 1930's.

Let's hope that Motorpsycho had to pay three "trønder" moustaches (very sought after where rock'n roll devils live). Because one thing is a fact, dear readers: Neither bassist / vocalist Bent, guitarist Snah nor drummer Gebhardt has had a "trønder" moustache in the nearly 15 years of Motorpsycho's existence.

The rockparty opens with fat classic bass on «Heartbreaker». Then the tough drums and the suppressed electric guitars enters. After the first verse it explodes in black with a quite simple «Heartbreaker»-refrain which heartlessly is thrown out by Bent the bully.

More guitars and hullabaloo is to come. «Up 'Gainst The Wall (High Time)» is close to a guitar orgy. And on «Star Star Star» the guitar and the rhythm section are visited by some horns that have awol'ed from a terribly boring soft-jazz seminar in Molde. Throughout the song they mix with the electric instruments, and it ends in noise and baluba and eviction after four minutes and eight seconds.

Motorpsycho is at that time already in track four. The pedal to the metal rocker «Vanishing Point». Then «Rattlesnake» comes creeping and bites you in the ears a few times before it crawls away after two and a half minutes.

And then the climax of the album: «Dr. Hoffmanns Bicycle» is a psychedelic rocker of huge dimensions. Have they been smoking Syd Barret's homegrown basil again? Tsk, tsk. Regardless of that: Seven minutes of enjoyment.

Then it's just a matter of smiling through the closing track «Glow». The victory is secured. Like always.

Any English or American band with songs like these would have sold in millions. And become hot-shots after album number two and broken up and turned junkies the whole bunch. Thank god Motorpsycho come from Norway, the land of wolves.

Kjetil Wold