Review of Roadwork Vol. 1 taken from the
e-zine
AURAL INNOVATIONS #7 / July 1999.
English. Found at the aural innovations-site.

Motorpsycho - "Roadwork Vol. 1" (Stickman Records 1999)

This is the first in a series of live CD's to be released on the German label Stickman Records by the Norwegian band, Motorpsycho. The album is subtitled Heavy Metall iz a poze, hardt rock iz a laifschteil live in Europe 1998. Motorpsycho have been around for 10 years now and have released a lot of material, and of a very varied nature. I saw the band on this tour (1998) in Denmark and they were very impressive. The band is a three piece of bass, guitar, drums. The guitar player also plays some old analog keys and the bass player, who sings also plays guitar. The band create a lot of atmosphere in their music on this release. The A K9 Suite is a five part 30 minute song that goes through heavy and slow movements but shows the band at their best at times. This is a band that I have never really appreciated their studio work, but live they are great and this release is very representative of their unique sound. Super/Wheel starts off with a heavy bass line and then an almost bluesy guitar line enters. This song might be considered by some to fit in with the old Seattle grunge sound, but the band jam a lot harder. Not afraid to improvise! Towards the middle of the song the band move into an almost eastern style sound and brings the song down to a nice groove. The band ends the song with a heavy wah guitar solo that gets pretty spacey. Excellent 16 minute song! You Lied is a straightforward heavy rocker as is Black to Comm, which sounds a bit like Sonic Youth in the distorted guitar area but more guitar soloing! Very heavy ending! Vortex Surfer starts with some keyboard and then the band build up to a heavy but melodic wall of sound that slowly slows until an intense end. Great live record and highly recommended!

Scott Heller