Motopony – Welcome You

If it rains a-plenty in the Pacific North West, Seattle’s Motopony possess enough loose, counter-culture cachet to keep us dry and cosy. Combining psychedelic patterns with slow-burn hues, the sextet’s sound – underpinned by Daniel Blue’s fluid, high register vocals – doesn’t shy away from detail, the harmonies, guitar cues and swirling Hammond organ stanzas of Bridge of Clubs and Livin’ In The Fire awash with subtle experimentation.

1971 and Molly wear their late-era Beatles influences without prejudice – and should Welcome You have a problem, it’s perhaps that many of its eleven tracks arrive as expected; the background touches may fascinate, but the song structures frequently find themselves trapped in a West Coast record store circa… well, 1971. It’s when the band slip further away from convention (such as instrumental Slo-mo Hoverbike Highway Escape, or the sitar-driven closer Where It Goes) that the disc’s intelligence falls into sharper focus, and interest is aroused. [Duncan Harman]