THE TUSSLER

Who knew? Apparently Motorpsycho is not only Norway's top grungy alternative rock and heavy psychedelic prog band, but its finest retro country export as well. Recorded in the midst of their early grunge phase (with additional musicians to the core of Saether/Ryan/Gephardt), it doesn't yet approach the country/pop/rock perfection of the much later International Tussler Society album, but its a start. For an album that was probably conceived in the kitchen room (where Soviet rock was proudly born as well!), its sounds full-bodied in its instrumentation, with pedal steel, guitars, banjo, piano and the occasional yee-haw! all coming out nicely, if not exactly loudly, in the mix.

Through their career, Motorpsycho has released a lot of albums and EPs, and they have explored a lot of different genres, including excellent progressive rock. Sometimes they are a little questionable, but sometimes doing quite well. In their early years, they played some decent stoner rock, and it was during this time that they went completely out of their element and did a country rock soundtrack to an imaginary western movie. The trio added several other musicians and put out this album, and later this incarnation of the band became known as 'The International Tussler Society'. The put out this album, rejoined a few times to do some live shows, and in 2004 released a 2nd album. These albums are shown together with the rest of Motorpsycho's discography.

So, this is far from progressive rock, at least on this, their 4th album, as it is straight out alternative country rock. As far as that style goes, they do a pretty believable job of it, even for being from Norway. They play a lot of covers and originals. The album doesn't really sound much like a soundtrack as it does a bunch of country songs with an alternative flair. The 'theme' is an instrumental bluegrass song, but the others are all alt-country. They have a slightly garage sound to their style of alt-country, so it doesn't have that 'perfect' sound that popular country has, thank goodness.

I can at least give this a 3 star rating since it is a lot of fun and a decent enough album for the style of music it is. They released 2 reissues through the year, one in 1996, where they added 4 more tracks, and then again in 2003, where they added even another 6 bonus tracks to that, so if you find this latest reissue, you get a total of 21 tracks and that's not too bad for the price. Anyway, if you like your alt-country in the style of 'Widespread Panic' or 'Leftover Salmon' then this will appeal to you. But, for a progressive rock site, it really doesn't have anything to offer except for a fun time.

Before continuing to experiment with their rock prowess, Motorpsycho would do a quick detour away from their usual affairs and instead go into the country for a tiny bit with this album of The Tussler. This album would be their first straightforward conceptual album they released, but not like some big grand country opera, but instead more of a silly side note in the band's career. The album itself is a fictional movie soundtrack for a spaghetti western made by the fictional producer Theo Buhara. Essentially put, imagine this as the country version of Soundtracks For The Blind, but before Swans ever attempted to do that monster of an album.

Put forth, this is a purebred country rock album in all its facets. A heavy emphasis on the acoustic guitar and a more western twang to it all. As someone who doesn't particularly like country music, I do enjoy this album quite a lot. I really like how goofy the entire idea of what this album is, it just gives me this fun saloon energy. This album does remind me a lot of my time in Nashville, even though Motorpsycho is a Norwegian band. A very culturally American sound attached to some new and old songs the band recorded on here, and I like that a lot. It gives me this very fun and fresh energy that the album gives off in many ways.

However as I said before, I am not a country fan, in fact I do not like most country music aside from Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton, so while I like these songs in a way, I also find these songs to just not be my own personal cup of Joe. I never found the music on here to be particularly impressive in display, or in sound. I think the best Motorpsycho can display is try and be ambitious with whatever music they wanna try, which pays off in spades as seen with Timothy's Monster and Demon Box, so this album really doesn't deliver those same expectations as their other releases have.

I will say though, the more soft country vibes a lot of these songs have, especially on Sunchild, is a sound that I can get behind. Even without the ambitions, I still think Motorpsycho can 100% deliver on their music in a strong way no matter what.

But, furthermore, I think the reason why I never felt this album to be the most desirable is the re-recordings of their older songs on Demon Box. I think the best display Motorpsycho gives is making completely original songs in the sounds they want to experiment on, and in this album there are a good handful of originality, but I am not particularly fond of the fact Babylon from Demon Box is on here when the original never sparked any country flavorings. Honestly, because of this, I never put this as highly as some of their other albums in their early career, in fact I think Lobotomizer is quite better due to its intricate originality in its display. For me, The Tussler's downfall comes down to its lacking display of formidable music, and as someone who desires this in my music it comes as a half baked country album that could've been something more.

This is not a completely bad album, but not completely good either. It is a fine display of country rock, but that is practically all it is. Probably the only Motorpsycho album I am disappointed by, but even then some of Motorpsycho's worst efforts can be the best effort for some bands. I won't recommend it in a heartbeat, but I will say look into it if you like country rock.