The Thing-Shake (2015)

The Thing-Shake (2015)

“I don't know what people think, it's up to anyone to think what they want, that's how music and art works”

Mats Gustafsson

By: Ghost Writer

You can't never count out The Thing, the mighty Scandinavian free jazz band that plays like a monstrous hardcore band, featuring the big talents of saxophonist great Mats Gustafsson, amazing bassist Ingebrit Haker Flaten and drum wizard Paal Nilssen Love, a trio implacable when it comes to tearing apart the boundaries of free jazz, Shake, the record the trio bring us this year is a powerful reminder of what this band is about, just check out the amazing bass grooves Mr. Haker Flaten creates for opener Viking Disco/ Perfection which along Nilssen's drumming brings immediate memories of the mighty thrashing grooves The Stooges created for the monumental Fun House, Mats is the one in charge here to let fire burns through his demonic sax which at moments defies Haker Flaten torturous bass creating and amazing fight of dissonant sounds of titanic proportions.

Mats again returns at the forefront in Til Jord Skal Du Bli with a twin attack using his instrument to create intriguing sounds while Paal lurks in the background, Mats goes into abstract sound sculptures, never truly revealing a direction, coupled by Haker Flaten, whose bass quickly assimilates Mats sax dancing, building a chord procession that quickly produces a dirge like piece which Nilssen seems decided to destroy, propelling the band into sound chaos and taking the spit from Gustafsson as Flaten's bass frees some really heavy bass notes only to be interrupted by Mats oriented tinged sax fire tongues, giving the tune a really complex polyrhythmic nature that leaves the listener amazed.

Groove is one of the definitive strengths of The Thing, something that sets them apart, they know how to get down and dirty, and in compositions like Loop-The Nail Will Burn they are not groove shy at any time, as they create an intense and passionately played groove enough to make stomach cringe, bodies to convulse and mind to simply rot away, the trio sounds possessed here pretending to steal our soul and make it burn with another hotter than hell tune, Mats instrument displaying rabid fury and a commanding presence, while Nilssen and Flaten give birth to an ultra-tight beat, sounding almost like a furious machine stuck forever.

It's interesting to note a piece like Sigill that give us a totally different perspective to the band as they get into a more introspective composition here, guided by Flaten's deep bass and Gustafsson slowly lurking sax, all this while Paal delicate accents on his drums and cymbals shyly flourish in the background, but the band stays really thru to their free jazz roots and put them ro full display in Aim which could easily be described as a sort of doom jazz piece which starts mutating entering a chaotic place that only this band could get away with these days, featuring Mats turbulent sax spitting fire while Paal endures the sonic massacre along with Flaten, trying to keep going on against Mats' devastating sonic attack.

Shake could easily be The Thing at its mightiest and most closer to punk rock, as the band really strives to keep and infectious groove but again never let you stop thinking this us a free jazz trio, the results leads us directly to the wildest experiment of people like Albert Ayler or Peter Brotzmann and its link to rock bands like The Velvet Underground or The Stooges, so when it comes to brutal sonic free jazz, Scandinavia is alive and well and with a great future ahead.