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Motion Turns It On

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Hometown	Houston, TX
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About the Artist

Motion Turns It On
Instrumental Psychedelic Progressive Jazz Post-Rock from Houston, TX

"The gauntlet has been thrown down to jazzy post-rockers everywhere, and there are very, very few bands right now with the ability to pick it up."-The Silent Ballet

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Music

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Spite Kyte

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Moayedi (The Gazelle Gets Its Revenge)

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Timber!!!

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Achievements

September 2009 Experimental

May 2009 Experimental

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Press Coverage

Top 30 Tracks of 2008 for The Silent Ballet #17 by The Silent Ballet
The Silent Ballet 17. Motion Turns it On - Timber!!! A band acting as lumberjacks: polyrhythmic drumming and an avalanche of guitar riffs and old-school keyboard improvs tear through wood, and as they yell their warning, we can’t help but follow every bit of the seven minute, prog-infused fall of our minds into the musical frenzy of this live recording. Impressive stunts come a dime a dozen, not as mere circus displays, but as one of the most fluid, coherent dialogues of the year, that are, if anything, enticing us to participate by rocking, jumping, or however it is you want to move around. (David Murrieta)

Amplifier Magazine Review - Rima by Amplifier Magazine
Amplifier Magazine Rima, the freshman EP from Houston indie/experimen... Rima, the freshman EP from Houston indie/experimental rockers Motion Turns It On, is an exquisite tidbit of appetizing proportions. Having played together for years, honing their skill before they took their vision live, Motion Turns It On has a sound that is not easily defined - no matter how badly one wants to pigeonhole it. Their songs have a familiarity to them not so much because they sound like other bands, but more so because of the genuine and comfortable way in which they write and play their songs. ï¿½Rimaï¿½ is rife with jovial intensity and highlights Steve Smithï¿½s nimble drumming techniques. ï¿½Satelightningï¿½ is a melancholy crescendo of harmonious instrumentation. Billy Kennyï¿½s guitar weaves masterfully between Derek Sinquefieldï¿½s bass lines and Andres Londonoï¿½s aptly placed keystrokes. From beginning to end, Rima is a delightful journey of melodious noise. Rarely does a first release so deftly illustrate the soul and maturity of a band the way this EP does. -- Brigitte B. Zabak

Skyline Network Review - Live @ The Southpaw by The Skyline Network
The Skyline Network Now hereï¿½s something we donï¿½t enjoy everyday -... Now hereï¿½s something we donï¿½t enjoy everyday - a live album. When we were growing up, no doubt influenced by what appeared to be the relative ease with which Primus and the Beach Boys were able to capture the essence of themselves on Suck on This and Beach Boys Party!, respectively, it seemed like a live recording was the way to go. Why even bother with studio trickery! Just show up, plug in, rock out and dub it onto tape! Frankly our views were more hardened by de Schmogï¿½s Fairy Tale, which we, to this day, will swear an oath to blog is a better sounding version of the band than any of their studio recordings. Oh youth. Fairy Tale, we later learned (aka, when reading the liner notes), had some post-show work done in the studio. And it turns out Beach Boys Party! wasnï¿½t live at all, recorded entirely at a studio, a gimmick cooked up by Brian Wilson himself. Oh yeah, and we liked Primus. Now older, and listening to Rattle and Hum with significantly less frequency, weï¿½ve come to view the live recording as a junior partner to the subtler and more satisfying craft of multi-track recording. Granted there are exceptions, like Spiritualizedï¿½s epic Royal Albert Hall and Nirvanaï¿½s catalog deconstructing Unplugged in New York, but for the most part they just come off as half baked; something thrown out there by a record label to maintain brand awareness while their hit machine struggles to compose its next opus. Rarely if ever, afterall, can the entire sensory experience of a concert be re-created by a feast only for the ears. Doubly so for ï¿½localï¿½ live albums (again, Fairy Tale being an obvious exception). Frequently, theyï¿½re a bad microphone in the audience or recorded directly from the sound-board, neither one being particularly good source mater from which to construct a decent final mix. MySpace is littered with live recordings of local bands that sound so awful it boggles the mind people would put them up there for others to hear. Sure, its great to be stoked about your music and what to put it out there for people to hear, but good biscuits and gravy from AAA Cafe, have a little respect for the shape your art is in. So, with all that on record, you might be just as suprised as we were at how Burt Reynolds as Malone Motion Turns it Onï¿½s new Live at the Southpaw EP is (note: Burt Reynolds as Malone kicks ass). Setting aside the production pitfalls of live recordings for a minute, it actually makes more sense for MTIO to make a live album than almost any other band in town. During the year of the INSTRUMENTAL MADNESS of our lord that was 2007, you could generally wheat and chaff the various vocal-eschewing acts around town with a few simple descriptors. Blades are the guys with the mathy time signatures and angular riffs; By the End of Tonight are the guys who canï¿½t write a song with fewer than one thousand parts; Co-Pilot found the part of outer space that has lots of clouds; Rustler builds slow and steady to shredertaining metal heights; Golden Axe WILL MELT YOUR FACE; MTIO are looser and more improvisational. That right there is why Live at the Southpaw works so well. Their debut outing, Rima, though a fine piece of work, froze their songs into a static, repeatable artifact. So while we enjoyed it, we felt it wasnï¿½t as ï¿½genuineï¿½ as the band was live, when it felt like anything could happen and their songs a stack of Mad Libs waiting for whatever outside influences might make one outing so distinct from another. Here, like a rock solid jazz quartet doing its thing in black and white photography cool, the songs are freer, and the improvisations more organic than the could be in a studio where second takes are allowed. ï¿½Satelighteningï¿½, a track on both, clocks in a full three minutes longer here than on Rima. And granted, while anytime you put something to tape you run the risk of making it definitive, the effect here is making us want to head out the door to their next show and see what noun, verb and adjective they throw in this time.

Sound As Language Review - Rima by Sound As Language
Sound As Language In reading the bio/press for Motion Turns It On as... In reading the bio/press for Motion Turns It On as I always do before writing a review (how professional of me), it was stunning to see the amount of descriptions for the band. Progressive, instrumental, post-rock, math rock, psychedelic, ambient, spacey, dreamy, etc. The bandï¿½s sound had already lost me before even listening to one note. Rima quickly brought me back though and as I listened I understood the descriptions. Motion Turns It On actually do occupy a wealth of space in all those aforementioned territories. It is actually quite amazing the depth and diversity of MTIOï¿½s sound. The band can lull you into complacency with beautiful sections before heading off into a math rock frenzy to make sure you are paying attention. MTIOï¿½s schizophrenic nature makes it difficult for comparisons though. The band is not as hectic as By The End Of Tonight but not quite as epic as Explosions In The Sky. For obscure comparisons, MTIO remind me mostly of the eclectic, keyboard-laced instrumentals of the underrated Crime In Choir. Call it Tortoise on speed if you will. Technically an EP, Rima clocks in at 6 songs and a healthy 38 minutes. That is plenty of time for MTIO to show off their incredible chops in whatever genre they choose at the time. Fans of instrumental juggernauts take note. Motion Turns It On can rock you in any number of ways.

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Motion Turns It On

About the Artist

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