"Aqualung Redux" MOTORPSYCHO premiere Jethro Tull's 'Up to Me'

MOTORPSYCHO square the circle with the second single taken from the forthcoming MER Redux Series release "Aqualung Redux". The Norwegian psychedelic rockers, very much like the British icons, hold a particularly strong and unique musical identity that has always remained clearly identifiable despite a multitude of stylistic changes in their ongoing careers. On their tribute track 'Up to Me', the trio from Trondheim unite two seemingly opposed artistic achievements: making the song their own while at the same time amplifying many of the features that define the sonic individuality of JETHRO TULL.

"Aqualung Redux" has been slated for release on December 6, 2024.

The MOTORPSYCHO tribute track of JETHRO TULL's 'Up to Me' is now available for publication via this link: https://youtu.be/CZpNGg-kXYE

epre-sale link http://lnk.spkr.media/jethrotull-redux

Parallel to "Aqualung Redux", Magnetic Eye Records will release the customary companion album entitled "Best of Jethro Tull Redux" that contains 8 cover renditions of deep cuts and all-time classics from across JETHRO TULL's extensive catalogue recorded by some of the heavy underground's most exciting artists.

MOTORPSYCHO 'Up to Me'

Jethro Tull cover taken from the album "Aqualung Redux" https://youtu.be/CZpNGg-kXYE

MOTORPSYCHO comment: "Jethro Tull is a band that made a niche of their own; and pretty much stayed there", vocalist and bass player Bent Sæther begins what is essentially a grand declaration of love. "Around 1972, they caused a rash of flautists to take up space on stage with more heavy folk-rock bands than you could shake a stick at – before permanently going out of fashion a couple of years later. Huge in influence for a brief time and much loved by some, they were equally derided and scorned by others. The British were wonderfully original musical iconoclasts. Just like The Dead, Rush, and a select few other 'True Legends of 70s Rock', Jethro Tull's intractability and sense of self-control rang as true as Fugazi's 20 years later – and have been as great an inspiration to Motorpsycho over time.

My personal Tull window pretty much shuts after 'A Passion Play'. This is not due to any big changes in the music, but rather because the ambition and self-confidence seemed to have receeded and diminished around that time – along with the hair (someone should do something on Ian Anderson as a modern day Samson. Now, there's a concept album!). A lead vocalist who is seemingly stuck in a perpetual self-defence mode isn't sexy, and much less cool. From the mid-70s on, they somehow just seemed like bitter and serious men in search of some kind of validation, no matter how humorous and light they tried to appear.

But from 1969 to 1974 their roll was immaculate. If you ask me for my favourite Tull albums, I am torn between 'Stand Up' and 'Thick as a Brick', but there's a freshness and a humour in all this early stuff that is all very smart and great.

It's a pity they became misers after they first went down that road, and never eased off to turn into jolly old men instead – like they should've. They deserved to, because generations of weirdos love their strangely delightful music and that's the best validation that you can ever hope for in this business. Everything else you can buy, but a fan's love is pure and true. And if that is not enough in itself, you're in the wrong business, mate. Is there maybe more truth and self-awareness in the character Aqualung than we thought after all?

'Up to Me' is a quirky acoustic number on 'Aqualung', and for me one of many highlights on a great album. We first tried to play it like we thought an electric Tull might've done it in 1971, but it just sounded respectful and flat. Their decision to do it acoustically seemed a better one to us than ever before, after trying this out for ourselves. Well, fooling around with a drum-machine and doing a less Geezer Butler-ish bass line than Cornick or Hammond-Hammond would seem to have solved the issue. We eventually ended up with this frantic take that manages to blend our first impulse to do something far more modern, and hopefully avoids becoming retro-for-the-sake-of-it and 'too true to the original' – like covers tend to do when you just love the original too much.

So in the spirit of the original Jethro Tull – at least it's something different!"

Explaining MOTORPYSCHO to a rock audience is a bit like carrying coals to Newcastle or whales to Trondheim. In this ancient city on the Norwegian west coast, the trio was founded in 1989. Bass player and vocalist Bent Sæther is the sole remaining original member. When the Norsemen started out, their sound was strongly influenced by heavy metal, hard rock, punk, and alternative with dashes of progressive elements. This is most strongly audible on their debut full-length "Lobotomizer" (1991). Yet right from the start, MOTORPYSCHO had their own trademark sound, which somehow survived even drastic stylistic changes of course in the following decades. Over the course of the next albums, "Demon Box" (1993), Timothy's Monster (1994), 'Blissard' (1996), and "Angels and Daemons at Play" (1997), the trio gradually reduced their metal influences and introduced more psychedelic and experimental sounds. When MOTORPYSCHO entered the new millennium by storming the Norwegian charts all the way up to the top fot the first time with "Let Them Eat Cake" (2000), they were a changed band on the outside. Yet they have always continued to be true to themselves, which also meant that during tours in the 90s, each show could very much differ from the others with huge spaces for improvisation, reflecting the mood of the day. You can never predict what you get from MOTORPYSCHO – except that it will be great, in a known way or a new other. Their latest album "Neigh!!" was released in September 2024.