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Norwegian prog-rockers Motorpsycho are an unstoppable force, churning out nearly one album per year throughout their entire career. Not even the worldwide shutdown of 2020/2021 halted their creative drive, although it did channel it on a slightly different course than anticipated. Unable to tour and not fully enthusiastic about the idea of “live stream shows”, the Norse trio started toying with the idea of a video/audio package that could combine their music, a dance performance by Homan Sharifi and the Impure Dance Company, and cinematography.
That ambitious project is still ongoing, or to put it more accurately, on the backburner according to interviews released by the band. Motorpsycho felt however that it would be a pity not to record and release the music that was envisaged for that larger-scale art performance, which is in fact the material included on Ancient Astronauts. On the vinyl, the four songs that comprise the album are divded between side A (“The Ladder”, “The Flowers of Awareness”, “Mona Lisa / Azrael”) and side B (“Chariots of the Sun - To Phaeton on the Occasion of the Sunrise”), making for a balanced 20 minutes of music on each side. The division also makes a lot of sense stylistically: although all four songs embrace the glorious progressive rock sound of the 1970s, the first three seem to have been influenced by early King Crimson, while the epic “Chariots of the Sun” brings to mind the symphonic mystique of bands like Yes.
While the sound of the LP is closer to retro-prog than the modernist, metallic outbursts of Motropsycho’s more recent records, the Norwegians interpret it with an urgency and vigor that makes it feel fresh and contemporary. “The Ladder” is particularly electrifying, with its driving pace, aggressive vocals and gloriously rock guitars. The song transmits a sense of violent unease that reminded me of the iconic “21st Century Schizoid Man” from King Crimson’s debut. “The Flowers of Awareness” is a short semi-ambient interlude, while “Mona Lisa / Azrael” is another throwback to King Crimson’s debut LP, this time reminding me of “Moonchild”, especially at the beginning and end, while the sudden surge of electric jazz power in the mid-section takes us in a completely different direction.
At 22 minutes of length, “Chariots of the Sun” is the bona fide prog epic of the LP. The surprise, perhaps, is that it is entirely instrumental. Normally, I am not a great fan of instrumental music, but the song’s slow-burning crescendo – from delicate chimes and nimble guitars to full-bodied rock explosions - is captivating and makes for a perfect backdrop to inner traveling and meditations. Here is where the Yes influences strike me as relevant, as I can almost imagine how Jon Anderson’s mystic wordless chanting would perfectly complement the song’s instrumental explorations.
“Chariots of the Sun” is also the song where it becomes most apparent that the music included on Ancient Astronauts was devised as a part of a larger-scale and more ambitious project, as the song literally begs for some cinematic visuals to accompany it. This is perhaps also where Ancient Astronauts reveals its main limitation: while it is always a pleasure to listen to Motorpsycho’s musical musings, there is a sense of incompleteness hovering over this release, almost as if it were missing some essential ingredient to satisfyingly tie the four pieces of music together in a completed whole. Ultimately, this is what weighs the album down somewhat, especially in the larger scheme of the band’s impressive discography, as it is hard not to see it as a parentheses between bigger endeavours.
[Originally written for The Metal Observer]