I must admit that my knowledge about the Southern German band Carpet isn't fully up to speed, since so far I only owned their 2013 album "Elysian Pleasures". The spectacular gatefold cover was what had stirred my interest in the record, and - even though I know to expect quality music now and there are less visual details to discover this time - the artwork certainly helped to sell it again.
CARPET - Collision (random colored recycled vinyl LP) (2024)
Maybe I should just write an essay about the cover and how it reminds me of Made Out Of Babies "The Ruiner". Yeah, this really is a good looking item. I'm also quite pleased with the looks of the record itself. The first hundred copies came on random-coloured recycled vinyl, and this time I was lucky and didn't get some ugly grey-ish furniture padding, but a decent tone. Sound quality is good too. A little confusing are the two lyric sheets, because there's much more text on there and it may take a while to find, where the lyrics you're listening to actually are... The design's great all around too, though.
Ok, come on! Why am I avoiding to say something about the music? Is it bad? No, abso-fucking-lutely not! The problem is that my first and still dominating thought about "Collision" - even though it's a high compliment - doesn't really do the work entirely justice. So here it is: There's not one single moment on this album which couldn't be part of a Motorpsycho record.
Specifically a Motorpsycho record of the lighter, yet still complex proggy side, with many catchy fab-four melodies and light-filled jazzy ideas. It's just the kind of carefree Psychedelic Prog Rock which feels cool and natural, but also doesn't shy away from showing emotions. It knows the genre's past but isn't stuck in is. A track like "Lost At Sea" seems to take just as much inspiration from the Seventies as it does from contemporary Jazz and Radiohead.
What I even love more than the great songwriting on this record is the warm colour palette of its arrangements, the textures of Mellotron, Rhodes, trumpet, flugelhorn and the smooth vocal performance of Maximilian Stephan. This whole thing just comes together so well! From idea to execution, production and presentation every step just worked here and makes this a wonderfully flawless package.
And circling back to the great Trondheimians: If this was in fact a Motorpsycho album - it surely wouldn't be their worst.
As a further bonus it's released on the likable Kapitän Platte label, which means you can expect some weird, probably very random piece of historic cultural or political memoribila to accompany your music.
Ok, come on! Why am I avoiding to say something about the music? Is it bad? No, abso-fucking-lutely not! The problem is that my first and still dominating thought about "Collision" - even though it's a high compliment - doesn't really do the work entirely justice. So here it is: There's not one single moment on this album which couldn't be part of a Motorpsycho record.
Specifically a Motorpsycho record of the lighter, yet still complex proggy side, with many catchy fab-four melodies and light-filled jazzy ideas. It's just the kind of carefree Psychedelic Prog Rock which feels cool and natural, but also doesn't shy away from showing emotions. It knows the genre's past but isn't stuck in is. A track like "Lost At Sea" seems to take just as much inspiration from the Seventies as it does from contemporary Jazz and Radiohead.
What I even love more than the great songwriting on this record is the warm colour palette of its arrangements, the textures of Mellotron, Rhodes, trumpet, flugelhorn and the smooth vocal performance of Maximilian Stephan. This whole thing just comes together so well! From idea to execution, production and presentation every step just worked here and makes this a wonderfully flawless package.
And circling back to the great Trondheimians: If this was in fact a Motorpsycho album - it surely wouldn't be their worst.
As a further bonus it's released on the likable Kapitän Platte label, which means you can expect some weird, probably very random piece of historic cultural or political memoribila to accompany your music.
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