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Rating: Calm.
I take a deep breath and all the time I need. I lock the room where I am, a good liter of coke & rum, phone off, and a top-notch sound system. I'm looking for the right atmosphere because this is an important appointment.
A Motorpsycho album is always an event, but this time it's exceptionally significant: a double CD with a saxophonist and an entire orchestra? Moreover, after a series of not exactly innovative records, and in full progressive trip? Unbelievable stuff.
Having become, through sheer output (over thirty albums, many of which are doubles, live records, and EPs), one of the most important bands in the alternative scene, known for their incendiary three-hour concerts filled with jams and improvisations (a few years ago, I witnessed a 35-minute-long performance of The Wheel, much of which was a single note repeated endlessly playing with a spectacular dynamic), the Norwegian MP has always amazed with their choice to change direction with every new work.
Now a grueling record, then one on the edge of pop (often far beyond), now a lysergic one, and then inventing a unique style impossible to imitate.
Becoming a quartet (even if not officially) instead of the usual trio and having replaced the drummer, they have nevertheless produced highly valid records, although the previous Heavy Metal Fruits did not add anything new to what had been said up to that point. After the fourth episode of live jazz-themed albums, here we are at the Opera Magna, the biggest challenge of their career since the country divertissement of The International Tussler Society many years ago.
Cardboard booklet, cover in typical classical music style with a white background and prominently displayed writing, this work unfolds over 13 songs, which just looking at their duration is intimidating (and let's not say that we devoted fans are more than used to it by now).
A little bit because of the presence of the orchestra and a little bit due to the structure, it doesn't take long to realize that this is a piece of music that must be listened to in its entirety, concentrated at least for the very first listens, before indulging in the luxury of skipping here and there for favorite tracks, but only once assimilated in its entirety.
It starts with a wind instruments intro, and then you immediately appreciate the entire orchestra at work, especially the strings, led by the virtuoso Ola Kvernberg. The rest, what can I say, is a sonic delirium of Music with a capital M, 85 minutes in which the term tanta robba would even be reductive.
There are splendid and exciting things (Oh Proteus - A Prayer, which with its twin Oh Proteus - A Lament is reminiscent of In the Wake of Poseidon by King Crimson), completely orchestral moments (Sculls in Limbo), endless guitar solos (splendid on the 16-minute blow divided into 3 movements Through the Veil), progressive parts like the Blue Cheer marrying Genesis, dismissing current prog bands (and this doesn't surprise me, given the chemistry created in live improvisations, especially among the two veterans) and much, much more.
I'm not here to say it's a perfect record, far from it; and despite having listened to it repeatedly, each time I find a new nuance, a crucial passage I missed, a hidden idea, and this is typical of great productions and monumental records. It's still an important milestone in MP's career and perhaps the most important, confirming, should it be needed, that these Norwegians can really DO WHATEVER THEY WANT with instruments.
The group does not PLAY with the orchestra, but completely MERGES with it, giving almost the impression that guitar/bass/drums have always been present in an ensemble dedicated to classical music. Ståle Storløkken also gives a masterful performance, exquisite on the intro and on La Lethe, a piece written and orchestrated to highlight the sax and its melancholic melodies.
Parts of songs chase each other and are imbued with references to one another, with recurring melodies and themes that return, disappear, and then reappear forcefully with different arrangements, and never can it be said that an idea is banal or predictable.
Sharks starts as if it were a bonus track of Let Them Eat Cake but soon transforms into a delicate song with plucked violin, then evolves into an almost gothic Wagnerian crescendo; all serving as a prelude to the amazing finale, which I must mention as it is the album's highlight and the worthy epilogue of a one-way journey, two pieces of MP that couldn't be more MP, and even though I can't tell you what their true face is: you know how it is, you can't describe quality, but when you encounter it, you recognize it.
Mutiny starts, and there is no doubt about who is playing. The orchestra almost disappears and seems like it never existed, the band from the last two albums peeks in with a ride marked by a dizzying bass, a background flute, and a rhythm that spares no necks and will make many live victims, but what shocked me the most is the transition from dark and almost gloomy atmospheres to those that seem to herald a new rebirth and thus decidedly more.... let me think.... positive (after all, life is beautiful even if our girl left us, right?? Or at least they say so...).
Eight and a half minutes filled with various virtuosity and pieces with syncopated tempos take us by the hand to the concluding Into the Mystic, a 3/4 sonic delirium over 7 minutes long that is somewhat the summation of the entire album, with many references to previous themes (and those familiar with prog know what I'm talking about).
An happy end at times almost folk that leaves the listener with joy for life, positive thoughts, and the feeling that all the negative things recalled earlier have vanished into thin air, and that it's worth trying to live this life.
In conclusion, this is undoubtedly the most ambitious work of the Norwegians, a work demonstrating unparalleled maturity and yet an arduous and tough album, definitely not for everyone, and I even dare to say not for all MP fans; it requires its time, the right mood, and the correct attitude to be absorbed, but it soon reveals itself as a (yet another) fundamental cornerstone for the band and for anyone's musical culture.
An engaging listen that offers broad satisfaction. Awaiting the next journey, who knows how and who knows where.
Claudio Scortichini
Track list:
- CD 1 –
01 Out Of The Woods
02 The Hollow Lands
03 Through The Veil
04 Doldrums
05 Into The Gyre
06 Flotsam
- CD 2 –
01 Oh Proteus – A Prayer
02 Sculls In Limbo
03 La Lethe
04 Oh Proteus – A Lament
05 Sharks
06 Mutiny!
07 Into The Mystic
Bent Seather – bass & vocals
Hans Magnus “Snah” Ryan– guitars & vocals
Kenneth Kapstad – drums
Ståle Storløkken
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