Reviews RACD104
Rune Grammofon are clearly intent on righting the wrongs of the past two decades or so that have seen Norway´s Motorpsycho receiving but a tiny portion of the credit they deserve. Currently operating as a trio, on top of their game, and recording some of the finest (psychedelic) rock you are likely to hear today, the eternally underrated band started life as an alt.rock band, hitting one of their many highs on this 1994 effort (as a five man group) which planted seeds of their future psych selves into a collection that has more in common with the likes of Dinosaur Jr. and grunge. It stands as one of their finest to date, a sprawling double album epic now expanded to a whopping four disc box, featuring the original album, the unreleased "first edition" and b-sides/outtakes. An exceptional, exhaustive package for old fans and new ears alike.
Rock-a-Rolla (UK)
The Norwegian power trio's 1994 coming-of-rage album, a double-disc set, is expanded further with an earlier unissued attempt and a full CD of demos, detours and a memorable blast through Hüsker Dü's "New Day Rising." Forged in metal and steeped in Seattle grunge, Motorpsycho were shedding influences and building on lessons learned, on the way to their current heavy progrssive-psychedelic peak. This is epic climbing, revealed in full.
David Fricke, Rolling Stone (US)
What at first glance seems to be an overblown artefact turns out to be an absorbing documentation of how a cult hardcore rock album was birthed. Consisting of the original release, an unreleased first version of TM and a compilation of rare B sides and outtakes - including a bruising version of Hüsker Dü´s "New Day Rising" - Motorpyscho openly reveal their various musical passions here that brotherly embrace pop, folk, blues and extended passages of improvisation.
The Wire (UK)
Norwegian band Motorpsycho have been a progressively inclined thorn in the side of rock convention for around two decades now. They´re experts at raiding the genre´s more familiar pointers and reworking them into a prediction-free smorgasbord of musical adventure. Originally released in 1994, this, the Nordic crew´s third instalment, was where they blew the lid off an already febrile imagination that had generated the previous year´s brooding "Demon Box", and providing their own, distinct answer to the US alt-rock luminaries then dominating the airwaves. For fans new and old, this reissue is a lovingly assembled treat. Not only do you get to embrace the stuttering grungepop of "A Shrug And A Fistful" and "Giftland"´s intoxicating vastness again, you also get a host of outtakes, extras and even an early (and later abandoned) version of the album. Which means you can now just why the lurching, Melvin-esque "Innersfree" didn´t make the final cut, or how the Lynchian/Floyd disorientation mantra of "Sinking" remained unreleased for so long.
Classic Rock (UK)
Hearing them again, Motorpsycho were creatively ablaze, spewing out diamond melodies, playing like knights, intrepidly soldiering into prog, jazz country-rock and, at Grindstone´s ear-damaging climax, avant-techno. It´s mindblowing, still. 4/5.
Mojo (UK)
Aside from the album itself - that´s already two discs and two hours of passionate, hyperdriven hairy rock accented by Mellotron, banjo, Hammond, vibraphone and flute (so brilliantly, unashamedly retro) - there´s a further three hours of bonus material including spirited Hüsker Dü and Kiss covers, soggy bottom bluegrass and tantric, Wagnerian psychedelia. Of course, the band have continued to flourish and dazzle, remaining their country´s pre-eminent rock mavens and influencers (see this years "Heavy Metal Fruit" release for further evidence). To paraphrase the LP track "The Golden Core", these are Motorpsycho´s sun god days. Saddle up and ride with the gods!
Classic Rock Presents Prog (UK)
Treat for grunge/slackerpop fans, Norwegian or not. Motorpsycho actually began life as MC5-style punks , before plunging into grunge-pop, Krautrock, progressive hardcore, stoner/cosmic rock, psychedelia and even improv jazz. This handsome four-disc box is a deluxe reissue of their 1994 LP, the last to feature synth/samples/mellotron man Helge Sten, now working solo as Deathprod. Motorpsycho´s love of surging grunge-pop is obvious, bit its development unfolds via the complete, unreleased first version of the LP, plus outtakes, b-sides and rarities.
Uncut (UK)
Spread over two discs, Motorpsycho´s fourth album was, fittingly, already something of a behemoth when it was released in 1994. Now repackaged in a deluxe 4CD box, with extensive sleevenotes by the Norwegian band and a sweet little poster, Timothy´s Monster truly lives up to its name... Even at their most charged, there´s still a listless, dreamy atmosphere to these songs, especially on "The Wheel", the epic 16-minute composition that begins the album´s second disc. Disc three, meanwhile, contains an unreleased, unruly first edition of this album, which is slightly rawer and less cohesive than the eventual released version. Alongside the fourth disc of B-sides and outtakes, it brakes the overriding reverie somewhat (especially with the fantastically visceral and rambuncious "President Block") but, more than that, it clearly demonstrates the considerable care and attention that went into this epic, monstrous creation. 4/5.
Record Collector (UK)
Originally released as a double CD and as a five sided vinyl package on EMI's Harvest imprint in Norway in 1994 Timothy's Monster has over the intervening years earned the reputation of being the crowning glory of Motorpsycho's sprawling discography and the arrival of this exhaustive box set makes it the ultimate version of the band'sdefining album. The impetus for assembling the box set goes back to the gestation period of the original album which was initially conceived as a single album before being subsequently expanded with the addition of a significant amount of newly recorded material. For the purposes of the box set the original album is sequenced across discs one and two with the previously unreleased single album version occupying disc three while disc four is given over to a miscellany of tracks originally released on various EPs and compilations, edited versions, B sides and previously unreleased demos.
Shindig (UK)
http://oslopuls.aftenposten.no
http://www.vg.no (Øya review)
http://www.dagbladet.no (Øya review)
http://www.nrk.no (Øya review)
http://www.adressa.no (Øya review)
http://www.musikknyheter.no (Øya review)
http://www.dagsavisen.no (Øya review)