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Rating: "You have two days to record whatever you like."
This is the rule of "In The Fishtank": a series of mini CDs produced by the small and feisty Konkurrent, inviting artists to the recording studio during their tours in the Netherlands.
The tenth dive into the fish tank was offered to Motorpsycho: those three Norwegian guys who have been reinventing the concept of "rock" for years by following the winding psychedelic paths with the smile of those who know how to crank up the distorted sound when they want and know when to slow down on the harmonies of a flute. Why let this opportunity pass to try new experiments again? And so the guests called in the brass section of Jaga Jazzist (a jazz group that had already collaborated with Motorpsycho in a series of concerts) to cancel stylistic differences and create something new: a jazz that isn't jazz, a rock that breaks with classical styles, all shaken into an astonishing "psychedelic spleen."
It starts with the sweet vibrations of "Bombay Brassière," there's something that calls the cosmos in those bass chimes on the clear signals of the brass. The moment you get used to the absence of gravity, there's the unmistakable intro of "Pills Powders and Passion Plays," here in a slowed-down version centered on echo games of voices and guitars, with the only contact with reality being a tambourine that suddenly stops resonating to make way for the brass carpet.
"Doffen Ah Um" begins from this soft and floating atmosphere and then throws us into the midst of cosmic turbulence with the brass chasing each other through unexpected bass lines and stormy tempo changes. Space can also be a lively place and here's the stunning "Theme De Yoyo" (a cover of a track by the Art Ensemble of Chicago for the soundtrack of "Les Stances A Sophie," a French film from 1970), a piece where the motorpsychedelic rock roar emerges supported by trumpet and tenor sax aggressions while the bass draws an unforgettable petrified riff.
But the journey goes on, after the storm an unnatural calm, at times shaken by electromagnetic discharges, takes over our minds, it's "Tristano": a long suite full of surprises and continuous changes layered over the apparent calm of four unsettling notes, it's one of those tracks to listen to with eyes closed visualizing the colors that the flow of the melody suggests to us, slowly without sudden stops that might damage the neurons, then accelerating at the end almost as if to launch the listener towards that leap to earth which is the return home, and the end of the album.
Many years ago a musician named Sun Ra said it, Motorpsycho embraced the message, and it is up to us to let it resonate: space is the place!
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