Artificial Head

* * BACK IN PRINT, NOW ON LASER GREEN VINYL! * *

Portland’s premiere purveyors of kraut-inflected party rock return with an album’s worth of tunes crammed into an extended playing set.

The eponymous lead track bursts out of the gate with ebullience. Lee Ritter’s rhythms and Cord Amato’s riffs fit comfortably in the space where Kraftwerk left off and DEVO began. “Artificial Head” may be about a Fleshlight, or it could be a paperback sci-fi-derived weed fantasy. You could listen to Møtrik while sober, but why would you do that?

Next up is the measured and groovy “Castle Electric” which features a dialog between bassist/vocalist Erik Golts and a sexy computer. His German is easily as good as her English and one wonders how the night ended after she switched the lights “auf.”

Side one completes with “Unifox” built up from a Dave Fulton synth composition into a full-fledged Møtrik track, this being the first time the band has bucked its contrarian vision of a band that jams in its own professional recording studio yet refuses to produce itself.

“Outer Reaches” is the patiently awaited sidelong epic. The contemplative and exploratory scene begins with chirrups from an analog swamp, then slowly rises through the hazy pastel atmosphere on a crystalline bubble before blasting off into full-fledged Floydian outer space psych.

As always, Møtrik colors between the lines, applying its overall aesthetic to rock music, which is to say it’s the FORTRAN approach to basement partying.

Artificial Head is just what your body needs to feel complete.

– Nathan Carson