Motorpsycho
Barracuda

A splendid musical creature with a thousand facets. A sonic experimentation conducted on all fronts. A cube, a star, a cylinder, a rectangle. And a child who enjoys trying to insert various shapes into the magic box each time. A joyful art, a sort of game at the highest level. To play, to explore, so that the word "passion" more intuitively conveys the uniqueness of musical creation than "entertainment."

Mysterious and eccentric, great contaminators with an elusive and indeterminate charm, Motorpsycho since 1991 have recorded an unspecified number of albums, all absolutely magnificent and imperfect. Driven by an approach to musical languages that is blatantly visceral - and certainly vulnerable - they have managed to handle different styles and nuances, such as grunge, folk, psychedelia, progressive, jazz, country, pop, and rock'n'roll. Each reflecting, in its own way, an aspect of their internal image; a taste, a character, a uniquely personal edge.

Thus "Barracuda" lives and thrives with its own autonomy and fervor not replicated in other Motorpsycho works: an immeasurable tribute to hard rock and boogie-soul like only in MC5's "High Time". A brilliant album, impeccable in taste and style.
"Heartbreaker" starts with a bass line that calls to mind a bygone era, and the entire song becomes a dispenser of frequencies that bounce and softly strike your sides while Bent's unusual "blackness" in vocals immediately clarifies the route the album will soon decide to take. The smooth and elegant direction taken by "Star Star Star", where the guitar arrangements fabulously wink towards the brass instruments, achieving a torrid flood of sounds unraveling in search of the G-spot between groove rock'n'roll and pure soul-gospel fanfare. "Up 'gainst the Wall" opens with the dazzling sounds of the Who's "Who's Next" (try it to believe it) but shifts everything towards an unrestrained blend where the omnipotent 'black feeling' that made history in rock, soul, funk, and jazz coexists with the modern flair of a band capable of bending melodies, taking them to boiling points never before reached.
In "Vanishing Point," a southern soul emerges from the powerful, fast, and engaging drumming, preempting the dark and rough pulsations of the subsequent "Rattlesnake", where the riff is embodied by a bass that transcends all its primitive and primordial 'time-keeping' instincts. All in one breath, without that possibility of reflection that only great music can take away from you, "Dr. Hofmann's Bicycle" leads into psychedelic wanderings that soften the tones and set the stage for the concluding "Glow", which revolves around a repeated guitar riff in sustain that is simply one of the most beautiful in the entire history of contemporary rock, as the chromatic changes shimmer, juxtapose, and seem to melt to embrace you, kiss you hard, and lead you to the end of an impossible aerial journey.

"Barracuda" exudes energetic rock from the unique perspective of the big bands of the past: a delightful album from the only '90s lineup to have absorbed all possible lessons without ever losing a personal, compact, and linear stylistic signature in the writing of their pieces. Color, warmth, and above all, imagination. Barracuda is proof that you can ask Motorpsycho only to keep playing, again and again. Because it is only the red rectangle. And you never stop playing with the magic box.