Little Lucid Moments (Rune Grammofon)

The psychedelic impulse was always one of pastiche: just look at all those ’60s paintings collaged together from Hindu religious iconography, Burpee’s seed catalogues, comic books, and Hieronymus Bosch. At their best, though, such tripped-out mash-ups offered a vision of ecstasy that spoke to millions, regardless of high art–low art boundaries or the dictates of good taste.

That’s the kind of level Motorpsycho’s Little Lucid Moments operates on. This unashamedly acid-etched undertaking contains four long songs—ranging from “YearZero (A Damage Report)”, which weighs in at 11 minutes and 26 seconds, to the 21-minute-long title track—that contain almost everything that it’s possible to describe as trippy. Summer of Love guitar arabesques? Heads-down Motí¶rhead boogie? Soaring Rush-style sonic architecture? Swelling postrock soundscapes? They’re all here, sometimes simultaneously.

Although at heart this Norwegian band is a power trio, it’s a fully modern one, using digital looping and the techno-honed studio talents of coproducer Helge “Deathprod” Sten to build musical structures that are symphonic in scope as well as size. But a sense of exploration dominates its work: complex through they are, Motorpsycho’s collages sound like they were assembled through mad inspiration rather than painstaking piecework. As a result, Little Lucid Moments is every bit as exciting as it is ambitious—you won’t hear a more mind-expanding record this year.