Motorpsycho by Motorpsycho
After two pandemically conditioned ‘reaction’ albums - Yay! (2023) and Neigh!! (2024) - a few non-album singles and a compilation album, a downsized and sleek Motorpsycho is back where we all know and love them, with an epic, sprawling double album, filled to the brim with inventive, organic and ecstatic rock-based music. Rejoyce Psychonaut!
This eponymously titled, 11 song work, has exactly as much variety & diversity, accord and discord, as one expects from a band that has released a few albums before, and that these days must be regarded as an institution in European rock. From concise 3min-something pop-rockers, to 20mins-plus progressive epics, via acoustic intimacies and psychedelic wig-outs, this is concentrated Motorpsychosis: commenced Rebis, countdown initiated. Ever closer. Ever sharper...
Since the traditional 3 or 4 piece rock band seems to be a dying breed these days, and MP always was a band in flux anyway, a new pragmatic era has begun in the Psychoverse. The band has, in what one might call alchemical terms, been ‘dissolved and purified’, and is by now again reduced to the core two founding members HMR & BS. This is nothing new, it has happened a few times before, but these days they are also the owners and creators of the record company NFGS, which is now the hub of all recorded band activity, and Motorpsycho marks the final severance of existing ties to other labels for the first time in 35 years. If ‘freedom is free of the need to be free’, this is it. Yikes!
The minimalist title of the album is then not just easy to remember, it’s also a statement: a new era has begun in the Psychoverse, a state of affairs reflected in execution and details as well as title, if not perhaps, in ambition or size: “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam” *.
This is a time of new beginnings for a band that has spent two years consolidating and reseting before charging ahead anew on a new path, trumpets blaring (...and trumpets don’t come much more blaring in the Psychoverse than with this grandiloquent hyperbole. Good fun! ). New day rising indeed.
The core band was adroitly helped by a gaggle of greats from all over the Scandinavian musical landscape on these recordings: drummers Ingvald Vassbø and Olaf Olsen, string arranger/violinist Mari Persen, vocalist Thea Grant, and - as usual - honorary psycho, brother Reine Fiske, were all fellow travellers on this musical journey.
Motorpsycho was co-produced by the band and Deathprod, and mixed by Andrew Scheps.
Motorpsycho are not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones that do what they do.
NFGS2025
*: [ “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam,” or “An old parrot doesn’t mind the stick.” ]
Tracklist
| 1. | Lucifer, Bringer Of Light | 10:49 |
| 2. | Laird Of Heimly | 3:54 |
| 3. | Stanley (Tonight's The Night) | 4:10 |
| 4. | The Comeback | 4:31 |
| 5. | Kip Satie | 2:25 |
| 6. | Balthazaar | 11:40 |
| 7. | Bed Of Roses | 3:19 |
| 8. | Neotzar (The Second Coming) | 21:07 |
| 9. | Core Memory Corrupt | 5:38 |
| 10. | Three Frightened Monkeys | 8:41 |
| 11. | Dead Of Winter | 5:24 |
Credits
01.Lucifer, Bringer Of Light 10:49
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion, mellotron, synthesizers, electric piano
Hans Magnus Ryan: electric guitars, background vocals
Ingvald Vassbø: drums
02. Laird Of Heimly 3:54
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead vocals, acoustic 6 & 12 string guitars, percussion, synthesizers, mellotron,
Hans Magnus Ryan: background vocals
Mari Persen: strings
03. Stanley (Tonight’s The Night) 4:10
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion
Hans Magnus Ryan: electric lead guitars, background vocals
Reine Fiske: electric guitar
Olaf Olsen: drums
04. The Comeback 4:32
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion, organ, mellotron
Hans Magnus Ryan: electric guitars, background vocals
Reine Fiske: electric guitar
Olaf Olsen: drums
05. Kip Satie 2:25
(Hans Magnus Ryan)
Hans Magnus Ryan: piano
Bent Sæther: mellotron
06. Balthazaar 11:40
(Hans Magnus Ryan / Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: background vocals, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, mellotron,
synthesizers, omnichord
Hans Magnus Ryan: lead & background vocals, electric lead & rhythm guitars, mellotron
Ingvald Vassbø - drums
07. Bed Of Roses 3:19
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead vocals, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, mellotron, electric piano, percussion
Hans Magnus Ryan: background vocals, synthesizer
08. Neotzar (The Second Coming) 21:07
(Hans Magnus Ryan / Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, bass guitar, mellotron, synthesizer, electric piano, percussion
Hans Magnus Ryan: electric guitars, background vocals
Thea Grant: vocals
Ingvald Vassbø: drums
09. Core Memory Corrupt 5:38
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, electric guitars, bass guitar, percussion, synthesizer, piano, mellotron
Hans Magnus Ryan: lead & background vocals, electric guitar
Ingvald Vassbø: drums
10. Three Frightened Monkeys 8:41
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, electric rhythm guitars, bass guitar, percussion, synthesizer, piano, mellotron
Hans Magnus Ryan: background vocals, electric lead & slide guitars
Ingvald Vassbø: drums
11. Dead Of Winter 5:24
(Bent Sæther)
Bent Sæther: lead & background vocals, electric & acoustic guitars, bass guitar, percussion, mellotron
Hans Magnus Ryan: background vocals, electric guitars
Ingvald Vassbø: drums
Produced by Motorpsycho & Deathprod
Recorded at Ye Olde Cheese Factory
by B.S. and in Amper Tone studio by
Kim Lillestøl & Tomas Pettersen
*Produced by Motorpsycho
recorded at Ye Olde Cheese Factory,
engineered by B.S.
†Produced by Motorpsycho
Recorded at home by H.M.R. Overdubs
Recorded at Ye Olde Cheese Factory by B.S.
Mixed by Andrew Scheps at Punkerpad UK
Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus Lab
