TRUST US

Another year, another double-album.

Trust Us boasts excellent production (they miked up a PA in the studio, and let every sound run through it before it was laid down on tape) A bunch of guest players too (experimental violinist/weirdo Odd Henrik 'OHM' Moe, sax-player Trygve Seim and drummer Jarle Vespestad from jazz/impro-band Supersilent among others)

In retrospect, this is said to be the psychedelic stoner-rock album of Motorpsycho. Songs like Psychonaut, The Ocean In Her Eye, Evernine and Radiance Freq. all fit the cathegory: Long songs alternating hard-rocking, well-written parts with psychedelic dynamic parts of occasional chaos.

Then there are the grandiose epics that gradually builds up and erupts like volcanos of anger: Vortex Surfer, 577 and Taifun all have main parts that start off like plaintive chants of beauty. Then they start showing their sense of dynamics, and building the songs up to noisy, yet grandiose and powerful climaxes/codas àla the finest King Crimson-epics.

There are also four shorter songs on the album to diversify the picture even more: Ozone is a rather bluesy throwaway imho, Mantrick Muffin Stomp is a cool hard-rocker with an Eastern-sounding Mellotron main "riff", Coventry Boy is a ballad with poor, offkey singing. And the final one, Hey Jane is a very catchy pop-rocker spiced with sitars and Mellotrons (and to date one of Motorpsycho's biggest hits)

This is a very solid album. Unfortunately I can't give it 4 stars because one song is a total rip-off of The Stooges' Fun House (Superstooge, although a good song), two are throwaway (Ozone and Coventry Boy) and two interludes of varying quality (Siddhartino is the playing of reindeer antlers which fit nicely between Vortex Surfer and 577, while Dolphyn is a jazz outro ending the album with a big non-descript question mark)

But still Trust Us is a very good album, and should be a mandatory part of any respectable record collection :D

I remembered vividly that a friend had lent me I a copy of this 2-CD album back in 1999-2000 and that I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, until recently, I haven't followed up on my first encounter with Motorpsycho even though they had a beautiful vibe to them that appealed immensely to my young inexperienced prog ears. Luckily now that I have an almost unlimited access to discographies of artists through the magical world of steaming media I am once again able to relive this album and its memories. The only difference is that I now have a decade of experience behind me to fill in the blanks that I might have missed out on back in the day.

Motorpsycho seemed to be one of the more prolific rock bands out there, releasing three albums over the course of the last 24 month and a total of 14 studio releases since their debut in 1991. The 1999 release Trust Us was not only the band's seventh full length album but also their second double album, clocking at the 82 minute mark. Unfortunately I'm unable to give any own analysis of how the band's music had evolved up to this particular point but from what I've been reading Motorpsycho took a major leap with the release of their third studio album Timothy's Monster and Trust Us was the next logical step in the band's development.

Spanning over 14 tracks and a total of over 80 minutes, Trust Us might be a tough cookie for anyone wanting a good Motorpsycho introduction album and it did take me personally a few spins, back in the day, to get a grip on just parts of the material incorporated into this album. Listening to it for the last couple of days was a pure pleasure to my experimental music senses and I did in fact recognize most of the material even though it was a long time since my previous visit.

The music on Trust Us is split between different spectrums of the rock music that is incorporated under the Motorpsycho's moniker. May it be the heavy hitting rockers like Psychonaut and Evernine, softer rock music of Ozone and Hey, Jane, the lengthier experimental beauty of The Ocean In Her Eye, Radiance Freq and everything in between.

One thing that really surprises me about this lengthy album is that there are surprisingly few instances that don't work, which is usually a major problem for most albums that reach over the 60 minute mark. Aside from the relatively short Mantrick Muffin Stomp, that feels completely out of context, and a few instances towards the end of the album, the material on Trust Us fits together really well. The three longer tracks are definite show stealers for me where The Ocean In Her Eye sets just the right mood for what is about to happen on Vortex Surfer. Once those 9 minutes start playing I become surrounded by sheer beauty of the performance. There isn't really a way to describe Vortex Surfer any better since this is definitely one of those wonderful pieces that just have to be experienced in order to be believed.

Even though Radiance Freq. follows the same basic pattern of the two previous lengthy pieces it looses a bit of its momentum due to one fatal flaw. The big contrasts between the soft and heavy sections on the track make me have to adjust the volume every time I listen to the track meaning that I get too distracted by the tedious procedure and can never truly enjoy this creative piece of music.

I highly recommend giving Trust Us a go since, judging from my review, there is a lot to be experienced over the course of the album's running time. The material might take a while to get used to but once you're there the album will become one of those gems that you'll want to revisit time and time again.

***** star songs: Vortex Surfer (8:59)

**** star songs: Psychonaut (6:58) Ozone (4:33) The Ocean In Her Eye (9:15) Siddhardtino (1:37) 577 (7:48) Evernine (5:07) Radiance Freq. (10:21) Taifun (7:09) Superstooge (6:48) Coventry Boy (2:32) Hey, Jane (5:14) Dolphyn (1:25)

*** star songs: Mantrick Muffin Stomp (3:50)

With 2CDs spawning 81 minutes, "Trust Us" is definitely the ultimate Motorpsycho album from their early period. There's nothing I'd label filler, making this is a remarkably consistent album from these Norwegians.

As with all Motorpsycho albums, "Trust Us" covers an extensive range of styles, with influences from Sonic Youth's alternative rock, Sabbath's heaviness, Beatles' psychedelic pop, and, certainly on the longer tracks of this album, an oriental flavor that reminds of Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffity". The dirty grinding Stooges rock of the opening track "Psychonaut" needs a separate mention, it's an instant classic. Simply brilliant what you can achieve with just one riff repeated for 5 minutes.

Over the course of the preceding albums, the band had been fine-tuning their original grunge/stoner sound to something more subtle, textured and ambitious. "Trust Us" is an end-point in that evolution. The next couple of albums would explore more poppier terrain.

Prog fans beware as this is still far removed from the Progressive direction they took with "Little Lucid Moments" and "Heavy Metal Fruit", but if you feel like rocking out, this is one to get.

On this 2CD set it is curious to hear the alternative rock roots of Norway's Motorpsycho (in contrast to the more retro psychedelic heavy prog approach they would adopt for the last 15 years). Well one of the reasons it was called alternative is because its difficult to classify. The stylistic range is broad - the pounding grunge of Psychonaut, the classic rock of Ozone, the dirty funky rock of Superstooge, the Led Zep-inspired densely layered heavy blues of 577, alternative pop rock with a sad Middle Eastern touch of Hey Jane, the hazy, dreamy Ocean in Her Eye, brooding, gentle-to-intense Vortex Surfer. But the overall sound is familiar to the early 90s heavy alternative rock sound - thick, trippy and self-serious - even when they don't want to be.

Motorpsycho is a Norwegian rock band that surfaced around the late eighties. The band named themselves after the 1965 Russ Meyer exploitation film of the same name. The movie follows a veterinarian named Alex Rocco whose wife is raped by a motorcycle gang, and his subsequent revenge plot. This namesake doesn't have the most interesting history, as the biggest reason Motorpsycho picked it was due to all of Meyers' other acclaimed movies having bands forming under their monikers, and "Motorpsycho" was the only one left not taken. However this origin does give a bit of basis into the band's early history. The band started as a stoner/alternative metal band, releasing their debut Lobotomizer in 1991. To call the album special was perhaps an overstatement; it was grungy and rough but also had glimpses of deeper complexity. Aside from the quality, what Lobotomizer marked most importantly was a signal for more to come. As the band progressed through the 90's they almost entirely lost their metal edge, opting for a more and more progressive, hard-rock, Led Zeppelin-esque output. This, in a way, is what made Motorpsycho's albums so unique in their own rights; every single one was like a different era in themselves, unheeded by any superficial tie-downs to any one genre. This is what truly made Motorpsycho an eclectic band.

Now we could take a look at really any one of the band's albums and have an enjoyable experience, but I decided to pick my personal favorite of the bunch. This album was none other than Trust Us, released in March of 1998.

Trust Us is perhaps the most complex of Motorpsycho's 90's material, which is saying something for a band such as this. Usually when it comes to albums released in '98 or '99, I make a point of how the band's sound was changing to fit a new decade, or that they began to synthesize new techniques of that time period. Motorpsycho is unique as Trust Us was not an absolute guarantee in a change of style. It sort of continues where Angels and Daemons At Play left off, albeit with less "indie" attached to it's name. Trust Us takes in a lot of influences, like Pink Floyd and the aforementioned Led Zeppelin. Hans Ryan and Bent Saether's overly-crunching riffs coincide staggeringly with the quieter background music and the overly-intricate drumming of Haakon Gebhardt, but with a few spins it becomes much more cognitively natural as your brain adapts to it. That brings up a bit of a nitpick some might have about Trust Us- pertaining to it's inaccessibility. Many of the tracks are 7+ minutes long and I can see how that could turn casual listeners or those with "musical A.D.D." off. I for one suffer from the latter, yet I'm easily enthralled by the sheer nail-biting talent showcased in some of these songs. '577' is undoubtedly my favorite, starting with the soft croon of Ryan and Saether's harmonizing vocals and leading directly into 4 minutes of unique and complex guitar solos, until finally re-arriving at the vocals. For me it's a true flagship of the bands talent with instrumentation (which undeniably is where they shine the most). However on the less heavy side, 'Ozone' is a bluesy kicker with a dash of White Stripes and a disarmingly fun beat. On the prog side 'The Ocean In Her Eye' fits the bill, an almost post-rock infusion undercutting an over nine minute long exercise of the band's creative muscle. Other tracks hold their own water very well but this praise isn't meant to be dealt by me, at least I don't believe so. Trust Us is a whopping 81 minutes and is nothing short of an experience that should be held at a personal angle rather than given away. I mean that in the most positive way that I can.

Motorpsycho is a unique band and revolutionary in their field. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend that a first-timer start at Trust Us, I would conversely recommend that anyone looking for a powerful experience whilst stuck in a musical drought, then this album is definitely for you. Good luck.

4.5/5 rounded to a 4/5.

This is the last Motorpsycho album they released in the 90s. Released one year after Angels and Daemons at Play and two promotional EPs, this album would be considered one of the band's best works in their hectic starting decade, and it's easy to see why many people, especially Prog rock fans, gravitate towards this album. I think it's because it released at the perfect time in the 90s when Prog rock was starting to get back into popularity with acts like Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater, and with Motorpsycho's glamorous mix of Prog rock, hard rock, folk, and jazz, it would make sense people would find a huge attachment to this album.

For me, Trust Us is an interesting record, and quite a hefty one too. If, say, Blissard was an experiment in composition, and Angels and Daemons was an experiment on releasing, then Trust Us is an experiment on what the band wanted to be in their next decades to come as this marks the band's turning point to tried and true Prog rock music. They dabbled in it earlier in the decade, but here we get full on Prog rock music that sounds really good.

What I think this record has a good hand in is the amount of variety you get on here. You get some slower movements like Vortex Surfer and Coventry Boy, but also some really hard hitting psychedelic heavies like Psychonaut and Mantrick Muffin Stomp. Really, this album is one huge collage of various artistic examples the band has nods and winks to. From hard rock, to jazz, to psych, to folk, basically what the band would be highly known for can be found on this album in spades, and I really love the album for it. It is like going to a museum and looking at different paintings by the same artist. They all look different, but you know they are made by some artist from like Sweden or something who was a painting prophet at an early age but died at the age of 20 due to a falling anvil in their grandfather's workshop. It is really special in a weird way.

Though, like a museum, it can be a little tiring, standing and walking around, and also not every painting will be as amazing as some others. This album is long, and as someone who generally likes hour-long albums, this one feels a bit too long for me. With a lot of songs on here, some ranging to the 10 minute mark, it starts to feel tedious sometimes, and I feel as though that is the album's biggest weakness. This is an album that is packed to the brim, but it feels like it is in a small box. To be honest, I feel like some tracks on here could be cut down, like some of the tracks that were on the two EPs that were released prior to this, Ozone and Hey Jane. Personally, the big amount of stuff on here feels a tad overwhelming, especially with the harder stuff. You kinda have to be attuned to what the band wants you to get into this giant album.

I think, though, Trust Us has a lot of good things about it to where it outweighs the bad stuff. The songs are tightly knit, heck even more so than prior releases. You can tell they had a clear idea and wanted to expand on it each waking moment, and I love that. I love Motorpsycho for their prowess of song making, and I never get bored of their music even after listening to them for a long time. They are just that good.

That is the best thing about this album, it isn't boring by any means. You'll get a lot of stuff out of this, though it is an album that is quite a bit too big. It's a museum of various artistic paintings by one artist. It is a very nice experience but one that'll leave your feet feeling very tired. If you liked Blissard or Angels and Daemons then this album is a great treat for you.