Customer Reviews

Trust Us

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

OK if you searching for the best album ever, you can stop now. Here it is, the ultimate masterpiece. Nothing can beat this album, with supreme songs like Vortex Surfer, 577, Ozone, Hey Jane and Superstooge. It is so cool, everyone must buy it! The best description (you can't dicribe real masterpieces) is mix between Sonic Youth and Pink Floyd, but different. Buy it and enjoy it forever!

This was where the Motorpsycho of the 90s had their crowning moment. Although not quite as good as Demon Box, their seminal masterpiece from 1993, this is a masterpiece in its own right. After this release, Motorpsycho left the longer droning jams for more poppy and catchy tunes (although there is always at least one epic track on each subsequent album), at least on their regular studio albums.

Disc 1 starts out with Psychonaut, a song crafted over one chord and in many ways Black to Comm's (MC5 track - often covered by Motorpsycho)little brother. At the same time a song that heralds what is to come. There is a long improvised section in the center that takes more cues from freebag jazz than rock. The next track is the catchy Ozone, before The Ocean in Her Eye takes us into a meditative mood that it is impossible to escape (huh - whoever wanted to escape that soothing feeling). Vortex Surfer continues in the same vein - an absolutely fantastic song that I doubt I'll ever get tired of (it was even played for 24 hrs non-stop by NRK - the Norwegian Broadcasting Company - at the turn of the millennium after a listeners' poll) - it builds and builds, and when the climax comes I am completely spent. Syddhartino comes as a breather before 577 showcases the heavier side of Motorpsycho with its rolling groove.

Disc 2 starts with a treated drum loop that turns out to be Evernine, a song with flares of Zep's Kashmir, yet entirely different. One of my personal faves from the album. Mantric Muffin Stomp is quite fun, but still among the weaker tracks (it's still pretty darn good, though), before Radiance Freq. takes you back into the soothing spheres of dreamland again, only accented by heavy citar (!) interludes. Taifun is yet another droning song that builds up to a roaring climax, before Superstooge presents the loud and obnoxious side of Motorpsycho, with a melody that fights it way onto your mind. The wonderfully quiet Coventry Boy follows before Hey Jane is a worthy end of a fantastic album - catchy and poppy, but without losing the rock groove. The final track, Dolphyn, is much like a parenthesis, but still fits in a weird way.

Trust Us is Motorpsycho taking the musical expressions of John Coltrane into the world of rock. The music is droning, and the improvisations are unexpected. Trust Us is a masterpiece and well worthy a spot in YOUR record collection!

4/5. The seventh studio album from Trondheim-based Motorpsycho came out in March of 1998 as culmination of an extremely productive era when nearly every year saw the band releasing albums packed with unique blend of indie rock, grunge, heavy metal and noise experiments in out-of-this-world psychedelic wrapping. On this double album Motorpsycho fall into total artistic freedom proving to be one of the most creative bands in the history of Scandinavian rock.

Trust Us is a massive piece of work with 14 songs and over 81 minutes of interesting musical solutions and unexpected improvisations. The Trondheim trio has taken a huge step forward from plain garage rock of their debut album Lobotomizer and developed the trademark spiraling song structure with multi-layered sound and deep bass line which on this record is taken into a different level through an inimitable mix of styles, instruments and ideas. The music is complex and as Motorpsycho wander the corridors of the 70s, rhythms of Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan and raw guitar sound of the Rolling Stones all come to mind. The material Motorpsycho work with is so diverse almost every song is worth mentioning. The opening track "Psychonaut" is a fine cacophonous tune introducing an ignorant listener into what Motorpsycho is really about. The title just could not have been better. The true highlight however is "577" - a psychedelic number which starts as a theme from the Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band" and develops progressively into heavy blues with wonderful guitar work by Snah. "An Ocean In Her Eyes" is a brief step into Nirvana territory with interesting vocal arrangements and meditative air in the middle.

"Hey Jane" which is also featured in a slightly different version on EP, is a real gem with catchy rock groove that would fit any rock radio format. Another great song is "Vortex Surfer" - a 9 minute epic that ends with a powerful blowout. Although the song would better fit for solitary boozing on the ruins of your thwarted love, back in 1999 this song was selected as the "song of the millennium" by the NRK P3 station after a listeners' poll and was played continuously for 24 hours on December 31.

Bass-outlined guitar chords and Deathprod-made samples used as constructive elements of motorpsychedelia are every now and then diluted by near inaudible chanting, delightful oriental harmonies and unexpected snatches of piano which add further flavor to the album. The range of instruments is as diverse as styles and includes theremin, French horn, taurus and clarophone, while the meditational prayer with a strange name of "Siddhartino" is played on flutes made out of reindeer antlers which were picked up by session player Trygve Seim on one of his tundra travels. And they say that Lady Gaga is creative?

Trust Us is one of the best albums by Motorpsycho. It also serves as an important benchmark ending the most creative and experimental part of their musical career. "Superstooge" features psychedelic jazz and fusion with an eye on upcoming In The Fishtank sessions (who would think back in 1991) and on "Mantrick Muffin Stomp" and "Taifun" they already start flirting with string sections - a tendency that they would rely overly upon on their subsequent records.

An absolute must for fans of serious music. A well-structured, tough and refreshingly good effort of exploring new terrains beyond the imaginable. Turn on, tune in and get on another motorpsychodelic trip across diverse musical landscape. May it bring you home... --Sain Alizada

Released in 1998 on the 'almighty' Stickman label, the mammoth 2-CD "Trust Us" stands out as perhaps Motorpsycho's richest work to date. Spending the entire 90s proving the limits of every genre far too narrow for a band of their calibre, "Trust Us" does the amazing feat of exceeding all of the band's previous work. (Those familiar with other parts of their discography would know that's quite an achievement!).

"Trust Us" makes words come short, and references won't do much better. Having previously been compared to virtually every respected band from the mid-60s and up, this epic masterpiece proves that even such a wealth of musical comparisons can't come close to describe the band's sound. Building on their previous adventures into space-rock and psychedelica (see "Angels and Daemons at Play"), the music of "Trust Us" makes references to contemporary minimalism, fusion and free-bag jazz just as relevant as anything else.

Sounding like a mix of Herbie Hancock in his early days meeting Pink Floyd and the Sonic Youth - all deciding to play works by Arne Nordheim -, combined with bass lines at times comparable to what Jaco Pastorius probably would sound like if reincarnated as a drunk member of an 80s German heavy-metal band, "Trust Us" captures the psychonauts at their absolute best. But despite seemingly owing their lives to nearly everyone ever involved in music, the psychos still manage to turn it all into something of their own. From post-rock à-la Godspeed! Your Black Emperor... influenced tracks like "Vortex Surfer", via. Psychedelic garage hit-songs like "Hey, Jane" to the jazz/minimalist experiments of "Siddhardtino" and "Dolphyn", Motorpsycho makes it all sound as the most natural combinations imaginable.

The first CD starts off with "Psychonaut", a piece of no-wave/krautrock mix capable of making even Faust look like a harmless walk in the park. Continuing with the bluesy garage-influenced "Ozone", the bands shows true beauty can come through noisy blues-beat guitar solos just as well as from anything else. Turning over to post-rock land on "The Ocean in Her Eye" and the classic "Vortex Surfer", the band's rock-adventure is abruptly interfered by a minute and a half of Trygve Seim playing his flute, before it continues on "577" - a track that would just as well fit into their '97 "Angels and Daemons at Play", but instead dives into a several minutes long solo of sheer beauty.

Seemingly starting off the second CD in the first manner as the first, added strings and old electric organs gives "Evernine" a slightly more symphonic feel, without ruining its psychedelic ambitions. "Radiator Freak" - including the sounds of wine-glasses, electric flutes and loops - is a 10-minute travel into a landscape best described as a mix of Indian folk and Canadian post-rock of the Montreal kind. Continuing this landscape into the far poppier "Taifun", "Superstooge" shows Bent's signature bass-playing at its fattest, creating dirty blues in a manner only professional psychonauts could do. Bell-based "Coventry Boy" slows the tempo down, before nearly radio-friendly "Hey, Jane" provides the album's absolute high-point.

To put it short; "Trust Us" has it all: Bent's well known 'tractor'-bass, Snah's thin and slightly off-pitch voice as well as the well known noises of Deathprod. And as that wasn't enough, amongst the line-up one finds people like Ohm and Trygve Seim - one of the leading voices of the new generation of Norwegian jazz -, adding an element of jazz greatly contributing to the beauty of the record.

"Trust Us" marks both the end and the beginning for Motorpsycho; The end of their long travel through the most unlikely corners of rock, and the beginning of an interesting journey in the borderland of jazz and rock. Although looking at ?Trust Us? it is tempting to claim that the band has seen better days, their "In the Fishtank"-session with Jaga Jazzist - another prominent force of the promising Norwegian jazz-scene - shows that the band is still alive and kicking - much harder than most bands may ever dream of.

Have a look at the review under their album "Timothy's Monster".