ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS

MOTORPSYCHO is the Norwegian group starting their musical misdeeds at the beginning of the 90's with a stoner, pop, fruity and crazy sound; prog rock, art rock in fact with scents pushed to the extreme to hit, make psychedelic hard rock reminiscent of HAWKWIND and MONSTER MAGNET. The desire for heavy rock to travel outside of musical time seems to take priority with sounds taken from TANGERINE DREAM and other KING CRIMSON, let's see what's going on with this 25th opus from the trio recorded live, Reine being blocked by the covid for check in.

"The Ladder" entry spleen, soaring in the style MOTORPSYCHO, that's good; quickly dreamlike title with Hans and his swirling guitar, Bent with cottony vocals decked out with his 18-string bass, finally Tomas who hits his drums faster than his shadow; a mouthful title that shows the extent of their talents, the dark end à la POPOL VUH that switches to "The Flower of Awareness" the gloomy interlude, a mixture of an old TANGERINE DREAM like 'Sorcerer', on a saw rusty, badly screwed jumper; memory of the LUSTMORD for those who know how to listen to a bit of extreme music, an air that connects with "Mona Lisa / Azrael" and that KING CRIMSON worthy intro of the timeless 'In The Court Of The Crimson King' with mellotron, bells, mandolin, dark sax; in short, the shivers on my arms confirm to me that this group is capable over time of structuring old sounds in 2020 fashion, with power and emotion; a 'Red' with the track 'Starless' in the background; it's stunning and vibrant at the same time; beginning of the 2nd third and after some stammering violin spleen that? explodes as they know how to do it so well; an organoleptic fusion of strong and concentrated notes from which the aromas emerge even more effective; the bass hangs up the music when the other instruments go into an apocalyptic psychedelic jam with deluges of dithyrambic notes; final again on the old sounds. Finally "Chariot of the Sun - To Phaeton on the Occasion of Sunrise (Theme from an Imaginary Movie" for a musical evolution in layers, with softness and violence, with planetary accelerations and drifts; a bucolic theme worthy of a POPOL VUH or a 'a GRATEFUL DEAD; a piece that you have to listen to, almost indescribable in fact on a trip as we no longer dare to perform; MOTORPSYCHO did it and this long minimalist intro all in finesse, this solemn rise make the music is no longer anything but personal dreamlike images; the crescendo in between never ends and captivates the mind, hits the prog molehill; the third space returns to a more latent sound before exploding again, choirs coming deepen the climate of departure, perfect as the soaring ending..

MOTORPSYCHO is psychedelia, a bit of ambient, adventurous stoner. It is a moment of musical culture unfolding sensations, musical climates, austere landscapes, wind, beds tangled with notes; it's hypnotic trance full of madness, nervous grooves, rushes full of musical adrenaline in the wake of their fabulous title 'N.O.X', titles that will serve as the background sound for a dance show; you have understood that you have here a summary of what they do best, starting from soft moments towards frenetic and hypnotic climates, starting from TANGERINE DREAM, POPOL VUH with the drifts of KING CRIMSON and other BLACK SABBATH?. A unique sound; the cover is taken from a film project which reassures about their upcoming future, the texts on enlightenment for those who also read the lyrics. MOTORPSYCHO was cited not as the best in this musical genre, but the only ones to make music in this way, a beautiful tribute that I absolutely agree with.

The Norwegian band are already veterans in progressive rock. Since their first release in the early 90's they have already released a handful of albums, some of which I believe are a reference in today's progressive rock. Possessors of an original eclecticism where progressive developments are mixed with psychedelic, hard rock, jazz, pop and even country influences. A formula that has allowed them to navigate from the accessible territories of neo-progressive to much more elaborate and complex formulas. A menu for varied palates. And this latest album "Ancient Astronauts" is good proof of that.

An album that despite not being very long, just over 40 minutes, concentrates a whole dose of musical expressiveness in only 4 themes, two of them of long duration. Especially the last one, of 22 minutes in which they make a kind of soundtrack of an imaginary movie.

Mostly instrumental themes in which they flirt with post-rock and in which the developments are very well worked to convey a sense of fluidity and continuity that makes the album listen from end to end with hardly any low points.

I would highlight the great role that the bass has in the configuration of the themes, having moments in which it is almost the protagonist. And next to it, an intelligent instrumental combination that allows the development of the themes to pass from melodic phases to long atmospheric passages.

One can only praise the genius and good taste of this band to concentrate in a short space of time so many musical ideas, very well linked and that above all they know how to transmit that epic, emotional and intellectual sense that characterizes the best progressive rock.

I don't know if it will be one of the releases of the year, but it is certainly a work to take into account both in the discography of Motorpsycho, as well as in the discs to take into account in this 2022.

Ancient Astronauts is yet another great album that saw the light of day this year.

The Ladder - Great opener. It immediately sets the stage. Love the violin parts. 9/10

The Flower of Awareness - A moody short piece that is setting the stage for the next track. 7/10

Mona Liza/Azrael - It's clear they are inspired by King Crimson here. Starless anyone? They didn't blatantly copy KC, however. They made it their own and delivered a brilliant track 9/10

Chariots of the Sun - To Phaeton on the Occasion of the Sunrise (theme from an imagined movie) - What a beautiful track this is. I love how the song builds up and then shifts into gear at the 6-minute mark. 10/10

They won me over. I give it a 5 out of 5.

The Norwegian rockers are back with their 25th studio album release--this time stripped down to their original trio.

1. "The Ladder" (6:41) recognizable MOTORPSYCHO sound with lots of cinematic synthesizer inputs. Bent's voice (and effects on his voice) have sounded better. (8.5/10)

2. "The Flowers of Awareness" (2:14) electronic noises/sounds like something out of a film score or Tangerine Dream album. Cool! (4.5/5)

3. "Mona Lisa / Azrael" (12:15) opens very much like KING CRIMSON's "Epitaph"--even the lyrics have a content and mood similar to KC's early mystique (even if Bent Sæther's voice comes nowhere near to the power and presence of Greg Lake). Heavy use of Mellotron and tuned percussives is nice, but this is no Court of the Crimson King. Halfway through the bass signals a transition to a more CREAM/WHO-like section of high energy and high tension over which Hans Magnus Ryan's multiply-effected lead guitar spits and squeals. It's wonderful how the bass, drums (two drummers?!), and even keys build the volume and tension beneath. Now THIS is great prog! A sudden lull occurs before the band reignites the ignition for a more melodic instrumental push toward the finish. A difficult song to rate because the second, "Azrael" section, which I ADORE, is so much better than the opening "Mona Lisa" half. (22/25)

4. "Chariots of the Sun - To Phaeton on the Occasion of the Sunrise (theme from an imagined movie)" (22:22) opens with a slow, contemplative progression of synth- and synth-wash supported guitar chords strummed at a steady pace toward increasing strength and volume. The sudden and unexpected change to a minor key at 3:27 is the first "misstep" for me. Thereafter, the slow addition of other instruments proceeds: acoustic steel-string guitar, cymbals, bass, and voices doing wordless vocalese. Still nice, but not as great as the opening section. At the six-minute mark the Motorpsycho guitar-based heavy prog sound kicks in as a Kosmische Musik/Krautrock-sounding theme is established and plays out for the next four minutes--two guitars interplaying within the weave--before keyboard chords initiate a searing lead guitar barrage (that reminds me so much of PINK FAIRIES and KINGSTON WALL lead guitarists, Larry Wallis and Petri Walli, respectively). Nice section if not quite living up to the expectations for peak and crescendo that I'd imagined. At 13:37 we verge onto a different lane of the same highway as roadsigns and turnoffs are considered, but then, at 14:57, we do pull off into a peaceful country road to enjoy the golden oat, rye, and wheat fields waving as we motor by. Nice. Dreamy. At 17:30 as repetitive treated electric piano chords are joined by vocalese, I find myself thinking of The Flaming Lips and even The Beach Boys! This latter impression grows even stronger as we enter the bucolic psychedelia of the happy-go-lucky chord progression of the 20th minute (a reiteration of the opening guitar play only with more effects treating the guitar sound). Awesome! This to the end. A wonderful journey. Thank you Bent, Hans, and Tomas! One of my favorite epics of 2022! (44/45)

Total Time 43:32

I certainly have to hand it to these guys: their inspiration seems to have no bounds; they are always able to come up with wonderfully creative and inventive music, year after year, album after album. Always adventurous and experimental, these musicians seem fearless! I love that about them!

A/five stars; thanks to the wonderful masterpiece that is "Chariots of the Sun", this is a veritable masterpiece of progressive rock music.

Norwegian prog-rockers Motorpsycho are an unstoppable force, churning out nearly one album per year throughout their entire career. Not even the worldwide shutdown of 2020/2021 halted their creative drive, although it did channel it on a slightly different course than anticipated. Unable to tour and not fully enthusiastic about the idea of "live stream shows", the Norse trio started toying with the idea of a video/audio package that could combine their music, a dance performance by Homan Sharifi and the Impure Dance Company, and cinematography.

That ambitious project is still ongoing, or to put it more accurately, on the backburner according to interviews released by the band. Motorpsycho felt however that it would be a pity not to record and release the music that was envisaged for that larger-scale art performance, which is in fact the material included on Ancient Astronauts. On the vinyl, the four songs that comprise the album are divded between side A ("The Ladder", "The Flowers of Awareness", "Mona Lisa / Azrael") and side B ("Chariots of the Sun - To Phaeton on the Occasion of the Sunrise"), making for a balanced 20 minutes of music on each side. The division also makes a lot of sense stylistically: although all four songs embrace the glorious progressive rock sound of the 1970s, the first three seem to have been influenced by early King Crimson, while the epic "Chariots of the Sun" brings to mind the symphonic mystique of bands like Yes.

While the sound of the LP is closer to retro-prog than the modernist, metallic outbursts of Motropsycho's more recent records, the Norwegians interpret it with an urgency and vigor that makes it feel fresh and contemporary. "The Ladder" is particularly electrifying, with its driving pace, aggressive vocals and gloriously rock guitars. The song transmits a sense of violent unease that reminded me of the iconic "21st Century Schizoid Man" from King Crimson's debut. "The Flowers of Awareness" is a short semi-ambient interlude, while "Mona Lisa / Azrael" is another throwback to King Crimson's debut LP, this time reminding me of "Moonchild", especially at the beginning and end, while the sudden surge of electric jazz power in the mid-section takes us in a completely different direction.

At 22 minutes of length, "Chariots of the Sun" is the bona fide prog epic of the LP. The surprise, perhaps, is that it is entirely instrumental. Normally, I am not a great fan of instrumental music, but the song's slow-burning crescendo - from delicate chimes and nimble guitars to full-bodied rock explosions - is captivating and makes for a perfect backdrop to inner traveling and meditations. Here is where the Yes influences strike me as relevant, as I can almost imagine how Jon Anderson's mystic wordless chanting would perfectly complement the song's instrumental explorations.

"Chariots of the Sun" is also the song where it becomes most apparent that the music included on Ancient Astronauts was devised as a part of a larger-scale and more ambitious project, as the song literally begs for some cinematic visuals to accompany it. This is perhaps also where Ancient Astronauts reveals its main limitation: while it is always a pleasure to listen to Motorpsycho's musical musings, there is a sense of incompleteness hovering over this release, almost as if it were missing some essential ingredient to satisfyingly tie the four pieces of music together in a completed whole. Ultimately, this is what weighs the album down somewhat, especially in the larger scheme of the band's impressive discography, as it is hard not to see it as a parentheses between bigger endeavours.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

At the point in 2022 of this album's release, the year had some very great albums so far, like Ashenspire's Hostile Architecture, and Klaus Schulze's Deus Arrakis. So, in the middle three months of the year, specifically August, it was high time for our enigmatic and highly profound friends over in Norway to release a new album, and what they put on the table that month was quite interesting.

Unlike the more hard rock focused Kingdom Of Oblivion, Ancient Astronauts finds Motorpsycho expressing a different kind of heaviness that I don't think I have heard before in any of their catalogs. Here, they truly go for this ever enigmatic stoner rock sound, one that is quite powerful in the grand scheme in my opinion.

What I really like about this album is how unique it is. You can very much tell this is a Motorpsycho album, but there are a lot of different moving parts that are new to this machine. It feels like the band is grabbing a handful of different genres to merge with this more heavy sound, but instead of having it feel disjointed, they manage to truly create a sublime experience by having these moments in time that cross between the frantic and chaotic jams, to the more symphonic and beautiful pieces of music. I think it truly makes for one hell of an experience in a way that I haven't seen any really big prog band pull.

I also really like the longer tracks of Mona Liza/Azrael and Chariot Of The Sun, but that brings me to what I don't like about this record and that is the fact the album is very bottom heavy, with the best tracks being the last two. I really like The Ladder, don't get me wrong, but it's companion piece of The Flower Of Awareness just isn't good in my opinion, and plus, compared to some of the moments later on, like the extremely fun jam session on Mona Liza/Azrael and the beautiful but haunting ending of Chariot Of The Sun, I feel like the first half doesn't quite hold up, though this is my only critique for this album since it is still really good, despite the odd track listing.

I feel like this unique sound Motorpsycho crafts on here can spark a new era for the band, one just as good as what they crafted from 2008 to 2016. It is a unique and very poignant album. Not a masterpiece, but still one I suggest looking into if you like a more stoner rock sound infused with various brands of prog rock and, just, rock in general.

4.5 stars. This might be the last in that great run of albums that started with 2012's "The Death Defying Unicorn". A ten album run ending with "Ancient Astronauts" which also just makes it into my top five favourite studio albums for this band as well as taking that fifth spot for 2022. I really like how spacey this is and that's not surprising given the album's title but there's a fair amount of mellotron and lots of atmosphere on here. It does feel like an extension of the "N.O.X." suite from the previous album "The All Is The One" but not as interesting or intense when it comes to the repetitive sections on that long closer. Still, when they do get heavy it really stands out as a contrast.

Just four tracks and over 43 minutes, I like it already. The opener "The Ladder" is a great way to start this with those distant sounds including mellotron before it kicks in hard and turns uptempo. It settles with vocals and some cool guitar sounds. I really like the soundscape that is "The Flowers Of Awareness" at just over 2 minutes it's short but a trip and worth putting the headphones on for.

"Mona Lisa/ Azrael' is the third great track in a row and the longest of those at over 12 minutes. Violin, light beats create melancholy before fragile vocals without the violin takes over. Mellotron when the vocals step aside and the violin returns. More intense 4 minutes in with violin over top then heavy before 5 minutes. This is insane after 7 minutes, check out the drumming! Some relief after 9 minutes as it settles right down but then it explodes once again before a spacey calm. "Chariots Of The Sun" is the over 22 minute closer and the one that brings the "N.O.X." suite to mind the most. If this track was better I would be giving this record 5 stars but there are some extended passages here that could have been so much better.

Still, a very good album that hits the spot even more than "The All Is The One" did which I found a little inconsistent not surprisingly given it was a double album.