"First of all, thanks for asking me for this, because Motorpsycho is a band we like a lot and always mention as an influence," says Toundra guitarist David Macon. "I got to know about them because of Little Lucid Moments and I loved to find a band with that kind of King Crimson and Yes sound. With Heavy Metal Fruit I became a fan, and I still think it's one of the best records that has come out in recent years.
"Aside from the good amount of cool albums they put out, they are a band you really need to see live, because they become quite a trip. I opened for them with a side project I had back in the day, El Paramo, and also with Toundra in Germany at Fusion Fest in 2016. I hope our paths cross in the future..."
1. Starhammer (from Heavy Metal Fruit, 2010)
12 minutes that start with a little intro and a guitar arpeggio that surprises you at the beginning and the powerful riff and orchestration that catches to make way for what the band does a great job of, which is a blunt foundation of bass and drums that combine with the riff and orchestration. What I like most about Motorpsycho is that when they start with the jam, the three of them ride until they reach the culmination and then return to the main riff.
2. The Bomb-Proof Roll And Beyond (from Heavy Metal Fruit, 2010)
I like this song and especially the way they sing those melodies that are intertwined, making everything come together in an amalgam of notes where each listen is a rediscovery of sensations. Entering a space that they create in the middle of song, something agonizing to give that fresh blow with the main melody again. The voices are for me are what gives the touch of colour, and it works really well.
3. Gullible's Travails (Pt 1-IV) (from Little Lucid Moments, 2008)
I will never tire of listening to this song, from beginning to end. In this disc Motorpsycho took a big leap and discovered a new way of traveling and this song is a clear example of it, without fixtures and with passages full of detail.
4. Suite: Little Lucid Moments (from Little Lucid Moments, 2008)
For me a masterpiece that demonstrates the power of the band and the paths they explored at that time. A song that can live up to twenty-two minutes live and the feeling it gives you is that you want more. The change of drummer (Kenneth Kapstad) gave way to this laboratory of ideas and that peculiar style of understanding and reinventing music. It has many parts in which the muscle of the song does not stop working, it is curious the amount of parts which handle all kinds of sensations. For me it is a masterpiece and explains much of what will come thereafter.
5. Year Zero (from Little Lucid Moments, 2008)
This theme begins with the bass arpeggio very calm, with a guitar also arpeggiating and answering the bass which is what directs the main melody of the song, giving way to the sharp melody of the guitar until its climax. The drums become intense and all join to give way to tranquillity and leave room for a very melodic and hypnotic voice that as usual ends in a rise in intensity and agony and then return to calm and the guitar solo.
6. The Hollow Lands (from , 2012)
This song must be listened to following the previous song Out Of The Woods that begins with several saxophones interlacing one another, creating a continuous rhythm to which the strings are added, and then create a kind of chaos that culminates with them beginning the song in a very ‘King Crimson’ style. The different melodies that are created with the orchestra work in a repetitive way like a train, letting the band create madness. Then the acoustics and voices enter, that break with the powerful bass and the drum cuts. Hallucinatory.
7. Hell, Pt 4-6: Traitor/The Tapestry/Swiss Cheese (from Behind The Sun, 2014)
As soon as the song begins, you know it has a special texture, those arpeggios playing with the bass line and that drum rhythm that makes you have all the senses alert. I have an anecdote with this song, a friend of mine received his birthday gift and this gift was this song written in staff with the parts of the three instruments, crazy. It all came because I think we did not stop talking about this topic in the first few times we heard it. As it starts and unlinks in a part of keyboards and arpeggios and how it ends with the bass breaking the sound and acquiring more and more strength, perfect.
8. Hyena (from Black Hole, Blank Canvas, 2014)
A song that lifts your spirits, I wanted to put this in concrete since it goes out of the frame of the progressive, moves more in line with a standard song but, by how it is made and how it keeps the rhythm, they manage to make it special and all the people who listen for the first time know it is something special.
9. I.M.S. (from Here Be Monsters, 2016)
This theme begins with a continuous keyboard repetitive melody to which more keyboards are joined with other melodies creating an atmosphere in which the guitar, bass and drums move like fish in the water, until the beginning of the song with the voices and the guitar riff repeating the beginning notes. It is a direct and simple song with the unmistakable style of Motorpsycho with intensity drops to break at the end of the track with a dissonant final climb.
10. Ship Of Fools (from The Tower, 2017)
I really wanted to listen to the new album, especially with the addition of the new drummer who has a difficult task since the previous one left the bar very high, but as always they do not disappoint. It is not exactly a complicated song, but the repetition of the riff evolving harmonically caught me when I heard it for the first time and the voices over it as if it were another instrument give it the perfect touch. I also like it when halfway through the song the riff is played with a powerful bass, and up and down intensity to make way for the voice and dissonant break at the end.
