Motorpsycho
8 Soothing Songs for Rut

For those who have never listened to Motorpsycho, starting here is like gifting yourself a tremendous sonic addiction for the years to come; for those who only know them "in parts," know that this is one of the best parts.

Following the harsh and somewhat naive Maiden Voyage and Lobotomizer, 8 Soothing Songs for Rut combines the following EPs, Soothe and 3 Songs for Rut, and serves as the first true manifesto of the Norwegian band's intentions. It's 1992, and this is where it begins: the steel thread leading to Demon Box and Timothy's Monster. A raw and hybrid diamond between the echoes of the nascent grunge and the visionary talent of a band that uses heavy distortions with an extraordinary fantasy and melodic sense. Far from the spotlight and rather an immediate underground cult, Motorpsycho was never thought of as a European alternative to the contemporary Seattle scene but rather as a metallic meteor with another couple of cartridges to fire. Yet, fifteen years have passed, and the beautiful picture hasn't faded.

8 Soothing Songs for Rut is simply a raw and scorching album, unwilling to ever hint at easy forms, instead exploring with rusty tentacles the sound's drifts, the more oblique melodies. It passes by in just over half an hour and devours 80% of the junk they pass off as rock today. But the beauty is that defining a catch-all genre for this work is almost impossible; it's just Motorpsycho. "The Wait" is a ballad with titanium armor forged from swirling sound circles, "Loaded" a furious raid of electric piano and riff upon riff, "Step Inside" the tip of reinforced concrete under a post-atomic deluge (devastating is Bent's bass use), all animated by a subtle '60s rock vein - here covered by a layer of distortions and feedback - that the group will never abandon, reshaping it each time.

Immense, free, poetic, there are never enough adjectives for Bent Saether and his companions. Their sound is unique, and 8 Soothing Songs for Rut reflects its essential characteristics, like an embryo of all the fabulous albums that will follow.