MOTHER ENGINE

MOTHER ENGINE are a Space Rock trio out of Germany and this is studio album number three from 2017 their latest. We get a guest keyboardist/synth player along with guest sax and trombone on that third track. And speaking of tracks we get four long ones ranging from 18 to 21 1/2 minutes yes this is a long one at over 77 minutes. I like the diagrams of each spaceship associated with each track and hearing the sounds from the hangar on that opener is really cool, the banging, voices, whistling, noises and so on. I worked at the local airport one summer as a 17 year old and had to write a test so I could drive their planes on the ground to gas them up. I have never been up in an airplane to this day but I've driven them around.

"Prototyp" is the opener with those hangar sounds as a sinister bass line joins in and this continues for about 3 minutes before it kicks in hard. Check out the guitar at 4 minutes as it starts to get louder. That bass line with drums continues. It does lighten with synths then picks up speed after 5 minutes. Some hard rocking stuff after 8 minutes. Slapping that bass late and some keys after 15 minutes as they riff. "Biosp(i)rit" has a quiet start with picked guitar and percussion as drums and bass join in. The guitar starts to solo and distortion is part of that. It's more intense after 4 minutes then the tempo picks up and we're galloping. Themes start to get repeated at this point. The guitar is on fire after 8 minutes. It slows down but it's more powerful 9 1/2 minutes in as the guitar lights it up, especially after 11 minutes.

"Tokamak" has that horn section with some dissonance before 9 minutes and this is the long one. Mid paced early with some distorted guitar. It's pretty heavy before 12 minutes and check out the guitar that follows. An experimental calm at 16 minutes. Heavy again pretty much to the end. "Weihe/Leerlauf" ends it beginning fairly relaxed but turning heavy as per usual. The guitar changes style here as well as we get riffing and a light show after 4 minutes. Strange how it brightens around 7 1/2 minutes, so uplifting. There are a few calms on this one but the one before 9 minutes is where it almost comes to a stop as the guitar echoes quietly. Some killer stuff over the last half of this closer.

I have been playing this on and off for several months and finally decided to spend last week with it. A lot of jamming of course but they do a great job at changing things up throughout each track. I just like their sound and feel this is a solid 4 star Space Rock record.