Working on resurrecting the site. Stay tuned for more.

First time visitor; read the about link above before continuing.

Better late than never I guess, so finally a few days behind schedule here’s the full summary, the graded review of the February vinyl.

I am not disappointed. Not one bit. As I said before, I had high hopes for this record, and Motorpsycho did not let me down. No, sir. Also, I do think it’s their best effort to date. It’s better than Blissard, better than Angels and Daemons At Play, yes even better than Little Lucid Moments (here would be a good place to mention that I, unlike most Motorpsycho fans, do not hold Timothy’s Monster and Demon Box in very high regard, in fact, they do little for me). The production is stellar, the songs are smart and beautiful and daring. The fact that Bent (Sæther, bass and vocals) lyrically turned it into a concept about the big schemes of things; the greatness of a “god”, the littleness of man, the vastness of everything surrounding it and that the three of them made a musical monster big enough to hold the vision I suppose Bent brought with the lyrics is absolutely stunning and nothing short of brilliant. It’s amazing. It’s not perfect though. Almost.

I guess the only way to go about this would be to review the beast as a whole, and not break it down into songs, since I strongly feel this album needs to be enjoyed as a whole. I am going to mention a few words on each song however just to provide some sort of landmark for an easier overview. To try and exclusively refer to the entire thing all through this strikes me as overwhelming. It’d be like trying to describe a continent without mentioning a few countries.

First off I mentioned in a prior post that my favourite song was W.B.A.T. That has changed. Sort of. I realised that I prefer the album opener Starhammer (that really should be called StarCHAINSAW to better describe the crazy thick tractor guitar sound Snah got going on there). Kind of. Here’s the thing, they are both my favourites. Emotionally I prefer Starhammer. Intellectually W.B.A.T. is my drug of choice. And in between with a little bit of both is Gullible’s Travails. The latter took me a bit longer to wrap my brain and heart around but once I got it, I got it big. What a daunting piece of work that is. Perfectly capping the journey off. Because that’s just what this is, it’s a journey. From the quiet Pink Floydish intro to the bombastic repetitive de-escalation of Phoots Flower, the fourth and last part of the great album ender (for the record - no pun intended - that’s the only song that can easily be taken out of context and still stand it’s ground). It’s a journey. A voyage.

Apparently they decided to let X-3 represent the album as a single. And for the first time in a long while they released a vinyl 7” (featuring an edited version of that song and with a session outtake called I.C.U. (Boinganoid) as a sought after B-side). Limited of course to a thousand pressed on black vinyl and another 500 on white added later. Haven’t listened much to the B-side yet, but the artwork is beautiful as always and judging from the title I would guess it spins off where HMF winds down. With the eye all-seeing and what not. But I can already say that I wouldn’t mind it on the record. Not at all. I like it.

Don’t know if you who’ve listened to this record have noticed or not but it is a tad lower in volume compared to it’s peers. Turns out it’s supposed to. And for a very good reason. You see Motorpsycho have taken a stand against the Loudness War, or Loudness Race. In recent years the record industry have been aggressively mastering most albums to be as loud as possible, and in the process loosing a lot of the dynamics that makes music interesting. Motorpsycho has taken this into effect and for the benefit of high mountains and deep valleys - they softened the master and relied on their listeners to think for themselves as to decide what the volume knob would be set on. Thank you. Hope more artist join to fight the power. I do love contrasts.

Not much more to say now. I genuinely enjoy every inch and second of this record. If I had to complain about something it would have to be The Bomb-Proof Roll and Beyond. Not really that good a song. But in it’s defense it serves it’s purpose, even if just as a mediocre means of transport. So it does bring down the grade a bit. Had that been equal to the rest of the material this would have been immaculate. Already very much looking forward to whatever they have up their sleeve for us next. In the rate their going don’t be surprised to see a new release before the year is up. Oh, and it won’t sound anything like this.

Grade: 4/5 black circles.

W.B.A.T.

I figured I’d share what I’ve got so far.

And, I’ve developed this urge already, to listen to Heavy Metal Fruit from beginning to end. That’s good right? Every time I feel like putting something else on, for example I take Led Zeppelin out, I take GYBE out, I take what ever out, I always think ‘No wait, the new Motorpsycho album!’. Never fails. I don’t think it’s the greatest record ever made - I might think it’s the greatest Motorpsycho record ever made, don’t know yet, but that’s beside the point - it just pulls you in. It’s luring. It’s heavy. It’s deep. It’s playful and smart, it’s mellow, it’s simple and melodic and sometimes monotonic but still very complex. It’s compelling. And challenging.

The first five or six or seven or so listens actually don’t reveal much extraordinary - long improvs although always suggestive, generic riffing although always with a twist, repetitive melodies although never boring - but then something happens, it all starts to make sense. It fits. And, there’s something more in there. That’s when you can’t stop listening. You accept the challange.

Motorpsycho have always done what they feel like, no album is alike, and this seem to be no exception.

I’m in deep now and I’ll keep digging. I’ll dig my way out damn it.

To be continued…

Firstly, read the ‘About’ link above, to see what this site is. Already done so? Great, go on.

Ok. So. The first record to be reviewed here at this little hobby site of mine, is, well, actually kind of a cheat; I didn’t buy it for this particular reason (something I plan for future reviews - it should be bought to be reviewed - though I may have to rethink that). Also, I’ve been listening to it for a couple of weeks already. Well.

Anyway, the record is Heavy Metal Fruit by Norwegian ’space rockers’ Motorpsycho. Now, Motorpsycho has been around for 20 years (it’s true, they celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, with an extensive tour and the vinyl only release Child of the Future, which unintentionally sparked a massive mp3-debate in Norway I hear) but I only heard of them about seven years ago, through It’s a Love Cult - an album regarded as one of the groups low points by a lot of die hard fans. I really liked that record so for me it has only gotten better!

It wasn’t until the 2008 four song full length album Little Lucid Moments that I fully got the greatness of Motorpsycho, and since then I’ve been longing for the next album, and the one after that, and so on. The obsession is officially out of control. Thus I couldn’t wait to put Heavy Metal Fruit on in order to follow whatever rules I set up for myself here at Vinyl of the Month and so the first entry is a cheat. But I figured what the heck, no one will know.

Lets begin. First off I will review the cover; the art, the quality and the condition. In this case I bought it online, from a regular retail record store (a first and last for me), so the condition is mint, as it has not been played yet (well, you know what I mean). The art is, as with all (I think) releases from Rune Grammofon, done by in house designer Kim Hiorthoy. It really is a stunning piece of work. The elaborately designed album title in silver outline (which doesn’t really come across in any pictures) covers most of guitarist Snah’s face. It somehow grotesquely replaces what should be a mouth and teeth (and they, what I assume is most of the band members mouths and teeth, can instead be found on the discs center prints). It’s a double album with triple gatefold and printed inners. The vinyls are 180 gram so the quality is top notch (pretty much) and that extra weight also feels really good in your hands.

The album is only long enough to cover three of the four sides and the way they solve this is genius; side A has beautiful etchings by Mr Hiorthoy (although I could’ve done without the one liner lyric outtakes, but that’s just me nitpicking). The fact that they decided to put the etchings on side A instead of side D (which apparently is more common) has it introducing the music, setting the tone, rather than filling a blank. They give it meaning. It seems as everything on this release has just that; meaning.

B1 Starhammer (feat. The Electric Psalmon)
B2 X-3 (Knuckleheads In Space) / The Getaway Special
C1 The Bomb-Proof Roll and Beyond (for Arnie Hassle)
C2 Close Your Eyes
C3 W.B.A.T.
D1 Gullible’s Travails (pt I-IV)
I. Eye All-Seeing
II. The Elementhaler
III. Circle
IV. Phoot’s Flower ( a Burly Return)

Oh, and - it’s a conceptual album. More on that later.

I think that is about it for now. Look at the pictures below and I’ll start forming my review of the songs. I will check in now and then with thoughts, corrections, quotes and ramblings. The full summary, graded and all, can be expected at the end of this month. Here we go!

/Black Circle

February cover art