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Motorpsycho - The All Is One CD (album) cover

THE ALL IS ONE

Motorpsycho

 

Eclectic Prog

4.13 | 189 ratings

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BrufordFreak
4 stars The Scandinavian veterans (with all kinds of excellent gusts) are back with their annual contribution.

1. "The All Is One" (8:50) a lyrics-oriented song until the instrumental section begins around 4:35. Amazing use of Mellotron in that section. (17.25/20)

2. "The Same Old Rock (One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy)" (5:18) acoustic guitar! Steven Wilson-like vocal! Then it kicks into old rock territory (The Who!) It's a Who song with some Steve Howe-like guitar lead playing beneath it all! (8.5/10)

3. "The Magpie" (5:36) (8.5/10)

4. "Delusion (The Reign of Humbug)" (2:44) acoustic guitar and solo voce alone in a reverb chamber. Gorgeous. (5/5)

- N.O.X. ∞ (42:38) : 5. "Circles Around the Sun, Pt. 1" (9:11) nice, gentle keys before raw, acoustic violin joins in. At 1:50 whole band kicks in, creating a deep, ULVER-like groove. Heavily distorted almost cinematic multi-voiced vocals enter at 3:40, singing an eerie melody that creates a pretty but Danny Elfman-like environment. This is f*king brilliant! Aside from the little interlude songs, by far and away my favorite song on the album. (19.5/20) 6. "Ouroboros (Strange Loop)" (8:23) a repetitious jam song that feels as if it was created out of Chris Squire's "Schindleria Prĉmaturus." (17.25/20) 7. "Ascension" (3:37) spacey PINK FLOYD-ish instrumental with soft weave of stringed insturmesnts --before the violin goes crazy in the second half. Brilliant and beautiful! (10/10) 8. "Night of Pan" (15:33) nice display of discipline even if the format was used on Death-Defying Unicorn. (27/30) 9. "Circles Around the Sun, Pt. 2" (5:54) Motorspycho being both motor and psycho. It's okay. An unfortunate ending to an otherwise stunning 42-minute epic. (8.25/10) - 10. "A Little Light" (2:19) two acoustic guitars--until the freaky, horn-like end. . Thank you, Allman Brothers and David Gilmour. (4.5/5)

11. "Dreams of Fancy" (9:37) combining riffs that are familiar from old classic rock songs as well as the band's own repertoire, they create a kind of hodge-podge LED ZEPPELIN song. (Think "The Rain Song.") Poor lyrics, poor singing, nice melody in the chorus. Letting Reine Fiske loose in the instrumental sections is the highlight. (17/20)

12. "The Dowser" (2:46) strummed electrified guitars with two vocalists singing in harmony. Nice. Beautiful chorus. Almost CSN&Y. (4.75/5)

13. "Like Chrome" (5:03) heavy BEATLES-like start before turning pure XTC! In the middle when we hit the instrumental section, it gets heavier before returning to the Andy Partridge stuff. Interesting! (8.5/10)

Total Time 84:51

85 minutes is a long sitting. I was prepared to dislike or be bored by this album (How much new and fresh music can a band come up with over 31 years and 24 studio albums?), but the sound is so good, the band so tight (especially the drums!), and the instrumental choices and weaves still so creative and fresh that one can't help but like it. Some of the songs here are more oriented toward the lyrics than I'm used to hearing from Motorpsycho; when I listen to Motorpsycho it's not the lyrics I'm listening to but the music. The sound engineering on this album is fine, the music polished if starting to sound somewhat repetitive of stuff they've done previously.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music. Despite containing some absolutely stunning pieces, there is too much music being rehashed here.

BrufordFreak | 4/5 |

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