sample:
Serpentine

There is indeed a love cult for Motorpsycho - virtually unheard of here, the Norwegian oddsters have won Grammys in their native land, and their albums - one released every winter since 1991 - regularly top the charts. Day-long darkness is enough to addle anyone's mind, but there's clearly more to the Scandinavians' devotion than a severe case of SAD. Beginning as hard driving stoner metallers, the trio are something of technicolour chameleons, adopting a different style of psychedelia on every release, and making it their own. 'It's A Love Cult', on the other hand, brings all parts of the rainbow together at once - which, should, especially as they tend to overindulgence and disorder, result in a touch of the Jackson Pollocks. Instead, excesses are kept in check, and as Youngian straw-chewing whimsy ('Circles') joins hands with breathless organ boppery ('Neverland'), and Todd Rundgrenesque star-gazing, complementation, not discord, holds sway.

For the first time, too, they've managed not to lose it entirely in bloated prog wanderings - the only embarrassing noodling of the QOTSA-like 'Custer's Last Stand (One More Daemon)', is its name. But you can go too far the other way - and the snore-inducing shoe folk of 'This Otherness' is proof of it. Fortunately, that's merely a blip, a smudge on an otherwise highly appealing canvas. Eclectic, maverick, with both a sense of musical history and a stack load of originality, Motorpsycho have made their best album to date. This is one cult that's set to grow.

Alix Buscovic

reviewed on 08.jan.03