Motorpsycho
Ancient Astronauts – Sliptrick
There’s always been something very cinematic about Motorpsycho’s sound (they took their name from a Russ Meyer film, after all). Often ethereal and other-worldly, it would make the perfect soundtrack to some uber-cool Nordic noir. Containing four songs originally written to accompany a film and a piece of performance art, their latest album Ancient Astronauts, brings that big screen aesthetic to the fore, to implant acidic visions in your mind’s eye. Employing tone and timbre to great effect, this album effects the listener on a primordial level, and opener ‘The Ladder’ rocks a definite “dark side of the ‘70s” vibe, and perfectly captures that moment in time when the hippy dream turned into a bad acid nightmare. However, the albums piece de resistence is ‘Chariot Of The Sun’, a twenty-two minute track which dwarfs the listener beneath its monolithic brilliance. Hallucinogenic (but without hallucinogens), it’s progressive in nature, a song of many suites that shapeshifts and swirls in kaleidoscopic shades of neo-pyschedelia, and takes the listener on a wild journey. This is an immersive album that’s best experienced through headphones, and you have no option but to allow its sonic waves to wash over you.
Review by Peter Dennis