Motor psycho
| Motor psycho | |
|---|---|
 |
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| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Psychedelic rock |
| founding | 1989 |
| Website | http://motorpsycho.no/ |
| Founding members | |
| Bent Sæther | |
Guitar , vocals |
Hans Magnus Ryan |
| Kjell Runar "Killer" Jenssen | |
| Current occupation | |
Vocals, bass |
Bent Sæther |
Vocals, guitar |
Hans Magnus Ryan |
Drums |
Tomas Järmyr |
| former members | |
Drums, vocals |
Håkon Gebhardt (1991-2005) |
| Helge "Deathprod" Sten (1992–1994) | |
| Lars Lien (1994) | |
Guitar, keyboard |
Morten Fagervik (1994–1996) |
| Ole Henrik "Ohm" Moe (1997–1998) | |
Keyboard, vocals |
Baard Slagsvold (1999-2003) |
Drums |
Kenneth Kapstad (2007-2016) |
Motorpsycho is a rock band from Trondheim , Norway , which has existed since 1989 and combines psychedelic rock with various influences such as jazz and country .
Band history
Beginnings, Lobotomizer (1989–1991)
Motorpsycho was founded as an alternative metal band. Founding members were Bent Sæther (vocals, bass, etc.) and Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan (guitar, vocals, etc.) as well as the drummer Kjell Runar “Killer” Jensen. After the demo tape "Maiden Voyage" and a contribution to the compilation "Pop Vol.4" the band released on the independent label Voices of Wonder , the debut album "Lobotomizer" the desert a fairly long stretches Hard Rock / Metal Mix offers , but also already the first progressive rock influences ("Hogwash", "Home Of The Brave") and some strange experiments (the totally faded "Eternity" and the title track carried by a scratchy violin).
The record cover shows the band in a psychedelic look and is - apart from the two live albums and the second Tussler album - the only one on which the members can be seen. Shortly after the release of “Lobotomizer”, drummer Killer left the band and Håkon Gebhardt joined him; this line-up formed the core of Motorpsycho until 2005.
Soothe, Demon Box (1992-1993)
The second album will be released as a limited edition of 1,000 copies in a steel box - initially only on vinyl. For the CD edition you add two bonus tracks from the single “3 Songs for Rut” and so “Soothe” becomes “8 Soothing Songs for Rut”. Around this time one begins to open up to experiments more and more and so it happens that on the third album, "Demon Box" (1993) about two epic hard rock pieces ("Mountain", eleven minutes, and the title track, 17 minutes), but also the folk number “Waiting for the One”, the Moondog cover “All is Loneliness” and the “Junior”, which is strongly reminiscent of Dinosaur Jr. Here Geb, Snah and Bent also work for the first time with Helge “Deathprod.” Sten ( Theremin , Electronics, Audio Virus etc.), Lars Lien (keyboards, vocals) and the American poet Matt Burt (who wrote his verse and voice for the "Plan # 1" borrows) together. A long-term partner has also been found for the artwork: Kim Hiorthøy is responsible for almost all the cover designs for MP publications. Sten and Lien also become permanent band members for a short time and tour Europe with Motorpsycho. In addition, the EPs “Mountain” (the aforementioned 11-minute track becomes a “single”) and “Another Ugly EP” are released.
Timothy's Monster, The Tussler (1994-1995)
After the falling out with the Voices of Wonder label , Motorpsycho founded the Stickman Records label together with Jeanette and Rolf Gustavus , which is based first in Nuremberg and later in Hamburg. In Norway, her albums will be released immediately on Sony Music .
The new five-man line-up will record the magnum opus “Timothy's Monster” (1994), which combines 15 songs between indie rock and progressive rock space operas on two CDs / three LPs . The metal in Motorpsycho's music is rapidly disappearing. After the EP "Wearing yr Smell" was released, they also recorded songs in outlaw country style with Morten "Lolly" Fagervik and Kjell "KK" Karlsen in the same year . These are published as "The Tussler - Original Soundtrack" (with an edition of less than 2000 copies), it is suggested that The Tussler is a film by the (fictional) Italian western director Theo Buhara. That's a good example of the band's humor.
1995 tours are undertaken, as Motorpsycho, but also as "The International Tussler Society", where the country pieces are played. The sets are filled with cover versions of country rock heroes such as the Grateful Dead , Gram Parsons , The Allman Brothers Band or The Band . At the Kongsberg Jazzfestival , MP and the free jazz group The Source played a highly experimental double concert that was later released on CD as "The MotorSourceMassacre" (2001). In the meantime, Deathprod and Lars Lien have left Motorpsycho, but Morten Fagervik has joined them as keyboardist / second guitarist. Deathprod is still the band's producer today. And the line-up of the International Tussler Society remains unchanged (notwithstanding the fact that the ITS had no activity between 1996 and 2002).
The cast of the International Tussler Society:
- Lars Lien (as Barry "Space" Hillien) - vocals & keyboards
- KK Karlsen - Pedal Steel & Vocals
- Even Grånas (as Ringo "Fire Karlsen AKA The Kid") - drums, percussion, guitar, mandolin & vocals (since 2003)
- Morten Fagervik (as Chickenshackin 'Lolly Hanks Jr) - drums, percussion & bass
- Hans Magnus Ryan (as Snakebite Ryan) - guitar, mandolin, double bass & vocals
- Håkon Gebhardt (as Duellin 'Flint Gebhardt) - banjo, guitar & vocals
- Bent Sæther (as Charlie Bob Bent) - bass, guitar, percussion & vocals
Blissard, Angels And Daemons At Play (1996-1997)
Since all of Motorpsycho's albums have been recorded in a fairly short period of time so far, Bent Sæther tries at the end of 1995 to approach the band's next album a little more focused. In fact, he's always been the engine, the driving force behind Motorpsycho, and this becomes all the more evident on this album. On the album for the first time Ole Henrik Moe (known as "Ohm") helps on the violin (although Snah also repeatedly contributed one or the other violin to the recordings). However, the recording of “Blissard” (1996) is not that easy and the band threatens to break up. Morten Fagervik is also leaving the band and will act as a drum technician and a lighting technician in the future. For “Angels and Daemons at Play” (1997) things are a little more relaxed. Here Deathprod and Ohm even appear as permanent members. The vinyl edition of the album contains a 12-inch booklet and there is a special CD edition in which the album was split into three EPs - "Babyscooter", "Lovelight" and "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel". The EP “Starmelt” is also released. For “Blissard” there were the EPs “The Nerve Tattoo” and “Manmower”. Both albums are considered highlights of the band's history and the years 1993–1998 are considered by most fans to be the best phase (so far).
Trust Us, Roadwork Vol. 1 (1998-1999)
In 1998 the time came again for a double album. It's called Trust Us and is considered by many fans to be the best album of the band. There you can also find the most famous song, "Vortex Surfer" (on the Norwegian radio station P3 the song was played 24 hours non-stop on New Year's Eve 1999). Stylistically, the album moves on different levels, so there are again many sprawling space rock epics, but also reserved short pieces, one of which, "Siddhartino", was played on an old Sami instrument called Reindeer antler (by a Member of The Source , Trygve Seim ). The EPs belonging to the album are called "Hey, Jane" and "Ozone".
As always, the release was toured vigorously and from recordings of this tour they put together the band's first live album, "Roadwork Vol. 1: Heavy metal iz a poze, hardt rock iz a leifschteil, live in Europe 1998". There is a 30-minute version of the piece “Un Chien d'Espace” (under the title “A K9 Suite”), a musical tour de force through space and time. The tendency towards the epic reaches its climax here - the CD version of the album contains 7 songs (the vinyl version has a bonus track, "Feel") - with a playing time of almost 80 minutes. One of the songs (“Words of Wisdom”) is only a 13-second intro to “Vortex Surfer”.
Let Them Eat Cake, Barracuda, Roadwork Vol. 2 (2000-2001)
1999 sees not only a short US tour, but also that Motorpsycho allow themselves a break after almost ten years of constant albums and EPs and touring in between (which has led to Motorpsycho to this day has an extremely devoted and loyal fan base in Europe). Then Bent, Snah and Geb decide to move away from the sprawling progressive rock operas and try to steer their music in much more controlled channels. The conditions that they set themselves are: An album of around 40 minutes playing time with songs under four minutes each. The concept doesn't quite work out, but in the end the band has nine songs for the album “Let them eat Cake”, which are stylistically completely different from the previous album. Harmony and catchiness reign here, and influences from Beach Boys and Beatles can be clearly heard. A small “pocket symphony” called “The Other Fool”, which is dominated by strings and has five different parts, can also be found on the CD / LP. There are EPs this time as well, on the one hand "Walking with J", on which some obscurities from Gebhardt's musical oeuvre are presented and "The Other Fool", on which some demos can be heard. Hakon Gebhardt, who has contributed a solo song to almost all EPs so far, releases an entire solo album that same year. He later worked with Martin Hagfors from Home Groan and Lars Håvard Haugen in the bluegrass band HGH .
During the sessions for “LTEC” there were also some songs that don't fit the rest of the album, that are more likely to be assigned to Classic Rock, and where you ca n't deny the influences of bands like KISS or Motörhead . This appeared in 2001 on the (mini) album "Barracuda". Also in 2001 the already mentioned appearance of the Kongsberg Jazz Festival, "TheMotorSourceMassacre", appears.
The lineup will be expanded for concerts, keyboarder Baard Slagsvold will accompany Motorpsycho on tours for the next three years and also play on the albums. The fans of Motorpsycho see all these events with one laughing and one crying eye. On the one hand, many like the change in style, on the other hand, many also want the “power trio” format and hard rock back.
Phanerothyme, It's a Love Cult, In the Fishtank (2001-2003)
For several months they worked on the album "Phanerothyme" (a term that Aldous Huxley invented - "to make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme"; and a title that apparently very few people could remember - the Bizarre -Festival 2002 Bent presented a song from this album as follows: "The next song is from the last album, the one that no-one remembers the name of, that thing called Phanümeröl?!? .."), which in turn is nine songs between The Doors and The Beach Boys offers. With all the influences mentioned, it must also be mentioned that Motorpsycho always act and play with them, but still always had and have an independent sound that is unmistakable.
For the album “It's a Love Cult” (2002) the band is relaxed again, the songs are recorded almost live in the studio. For this purpose, an EP, "Serpentine", will be released again, after none had been released for the previous output. In the summer Motorpsycho play a few festivals where they are accompanied by the wind section of the jazz band Jaga Jazzist . Together with them they then also record the CD "In the Fishtank" (a series from the Dutch competitor label). This EP or this album (it only contains five songs, but together they are about 45 minutes long) breathes Fusion and thus adds another interesting component to the MP sound. This collaboration appears in 2003.
Motorpsycho Presents The International Tussler Society (2004-2005)
"The pop phase of Motorpsycho is over" announced Hakon Gebhardt around the end of 2003, while they were touring Japan again without a keyboard player. Suddenly most of the pieces from the last few years disappear from the set lists (Motorpsycho is known for always playing different set lists and organizing each concert differently) and are replaced by well-known progressive rock pieces such as the massively hypnotic "The Wheel" ( from 1994). Most fans appreciate that. However, the band waits a little longer with new material. A short European tour followed in the summer of 2004, but a new "Tussler" album ("Motorpsycho presents The International Tussler Society") will be released in the fall and a tour will follow. A remastered version of the 1994 “Tussler” album with lots of bonus tracks had already been released in 2003 (as mentioned, the initial print run was just under 2000 copies).
In 2005 one hears suspiciously little from the band, until suddenly there is bad news emblazoned on the Stickman Records website: Gebhardt left Motorpsycho to take more care of HGH in the future. However, Snah and Bent have decided to continue as a duo (Bent also repeatedly played drums on a few pieces, for example on "Trapdoor" from 1994 or "Never let you out" from 2000). The fact that Geb has tinnitus may also have played a role in his decision - playing the banjo with HGH is nowhere near the level of noise that drums can cause in Motorpsycho.
Black Hole / Blank Canvas, Little Lucid Moments (2006–2008)
At the end of 2005, the fearful fan base was released with the news that the new album, which was recorded in the Eindhoven “Void” studio by long-time live sound engineer Pieter “Pidah” Kloos , will be released in March 2006 and that “Black Hole / Blank Canvas” called. For the third time in the band's history, it is a double album and contains 17 new songs. At the end of January 2006 there was a first song, "In Our Tree", on Norwegian radio P3 . This time no singles were released or a video was made. In spring the band could be seen live on the stages of Europe, accompanied by Jacco van Rooij (ex- 35007 ) on drums and Øyvind Brandtsegg on the electronic vibraphone. Further tours followed in summer and autumn, although Brandtsegg was not always there.
In 2007 they played a festival tour. Behind the drums, however, was not Van Rooij, but the Norwegian Kenneth Kapstad.
In March 2008, the album entitled "Little Lucid Moments" was released. With a duration of just under an hour, it only contains four songs. The title piece alone, a four-part suite, is over 21 minutes long. Kenneth Kapstad is now a permanent member of the band, so Motorpsycho is a complete band again. Helge Sten is once again the producer. In contrast to the last albums, “Little Lucid Moments” was recorded live in the studio at the same time, and so the atmosphere comes close to a Motorpsycho concert. A tour through Norway, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will take place in April / May, followed by festival appearances in summer.
In May 2008 the DVD "Haircuts: Motorpsycho on Film" was released, which not only contains all of the band's videos and the out-of-print documentary "This Is Motorpsycho" from 1995, but also a live concert from 2002, bonus documentaries, comments from the band and much (hidden ) Bonus material.
Child of the Future, Heavy Metal Fruit, Roadworks Vol IV, The Death Defying Unicorn (2009-present)
After 20 years of band history, the Norwegians celebrated their small anniversary in 2009 with an album released only on vinyl. "Child of the Future" is not your typical studio album. It is the result of a four-day studio session with Steve Albini in his Chicago Electrical Audio Studio. During the US tour in 2008, the band recorded some drum, bass and guitar tracks there, and almost a year later they took up the recordings again in Norway and added vocals, among other things. This is how six songs from "Child of the Future" came about, the seventh was recorded in Bent's home studio. The publication followed various festival appearances in Norway as well as a "20th Anniversary Tour" through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in November. In 2010 the next, official (including a CD version) album "Heavy Metal Fruit" was released, which is stylistically based on "Child of the Future". With six titles and a playing time of around 60 minutes, there is enough room for improvisation. This can be seen in the first title "Starhammer", which lasts over 12 minutes, and is finalized in the title "Gullible's Travails" with a playing time of over 20 minutes.
The series of official live releases was continued in 2011 with the album "Roadworks Vol. IV". The album focuses on recordings of European concerts between 2008 and 2010. The selection of tracks is based on live interpretations of rather less well-known tracks. Interesting is z. B. the 18-minute version of the track "All Is Loneliness", which was released in 1993 as a 3-minute track on the album "Demon Box".
At the beginning of 2012 the double album " The Death Defying Unicorn " was released in collaboration with the Norwegian jazz musician Ståle Storløkken . The basis of the album was a joint project that was realized for the Molde International Jazz Festival 2010. The Trondheim Jazz Orchestra as well as a string octet and master violinist Ola Kvernberg were involved in the approximately two-hour instrumental work. The resulting material has been extensively revised for the double CD / double LP release and also supplemented with vocal parts.
In 2019 the album The Crucible, recorded by Andrew Scheps , was released .
Discography
- 1991: Lobotomizer
- 1992: 8 Soothing Songs for Rut
- 1993: Demon Box
- 1994: Timothy's Monster
- 1996: Blissard
- 1997: Angels and Daemons at Play
- 1998: Trust Us
- 2000: Let Them Eat Cake
- 2001: Phanerothyma
- 2002: It's a Love Cult
- 2006: Black Hole / Blank Canvas
- 2008: Little Lucid Moments
- 2009: Child of the Future
- 2010: Heavy Metal Fruit
- 2012: The Death Defying Unicorn
- 2013: Still Life with Eggplant
- 2014: Behind the Sun
- 2015: En Concert For Folk Flest
- 2015: Supersonic Scientists
- 2016: Here Be Monsters
- 2017: The Tower
- 2019: The Crucible