Safety Copy

* * RED VINYL LP BACK IN STOCK * *

The long tail of Krautrock in all its droney, repetitive permutations continues to be felt in modern music, some 40+ years after artists like Faust, Kraftwerk, and Can arrived in the world. It’s what you do with those influences that matters. And no one is doing more with the raw materials of this sound than Møtrik.

This quartet from Portland, Oregon—bassist/vocalist Erik Golts, drummer Lee Ritter, guitarist Cord Amato and synth wizard Dave Fulton—connect up with the sounds of the past like an M.C. Escher mural: it follows the same patterns but takes them in much different directions with much more colorful and mind-altering results.

You’ll hear that laut und klar on the band’s long-awaited second album Safety Copy. Through seven extended jams, Møtrik nod to their German forebears while applying their expertise in post-rock, garage punk, prog, and more to those well-loved templates. Album closer “Moving Destinations” drifts in slowly from a fog of ambient synth and guitar before falling into the steady gallop of Ritter’s drums that leads them on a circuitous journey to an explosive, proto-metal conclusion. Earlier in the album, there’s an almost neon-lit new wave glow around “King of Tonga” were it not for Amato’s downright filthy guitar tone and some welcome modular honking to keep it from getting too self-serious. For an album that feels so open and airy, there’s a lot going on within each song.

There’s also the matter of how clear and precise everything sounds on Safety Copy. Recorded DIY style by Jason Powers (Grails, Blue Cranes) in a remote coastal enclave, the album feels massive in scale, filling the stereo field with a cinematic grandeur. This is the soundtrack for the moody, sci-fi action film of your dreams that has yet to be produced.

It’s the perfect step forward for Møtrik, the capstone for a slow, steady evolution that began when the group first started playing together in 2012. Since then, these gents have self-released a much-loved full-length and 33, a limited edition 12” via Jealous Butcher Records that Willamette Week alliteratively called “melodic mellow-mood music...that nods to Neu! And teases toward Tortoise.” Along the way, they have graced stages both big and small throughout the Northwest, sharing bills with the likes of Viet Cong (aka Preoccupations), Birdwatching and Once & Future Band.

Møtrik have big plans for 2018 following the release of Safety Copy, with plenty of hometown shows in the works and thoughts toward an extended tour that will surely find them melting the minds and spirits of psychedelic wanderers the world over.