Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

The Thing - Action Jazz [Smalltown Superjazz - 2007]

The Thing make really stonking , punked-up and energetic take on jazz fronted by the always amazing, prolific and quality bond Norwegian sax player Mats Gustafsson. Along with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double Bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums and percussion, All making a hell of a lot of beautiful noise along the way.

The album is mainly made up of covers, but these are no pedestrian cover versions, the band literally rip them apart making them very much their own down and dirty tracks. With throaty & manic sax wails & screams, hectic bass work-outs and abuse, good hard drum work-outs that sound messy and haphazard, but at the same time complete spot on, inspired  and showing a hell of a lot testosterone and raw talent. Really the same can be said for the whole album- It's  a chaotic, beautiful haphazard beating that complete side steps the kind of  knowing and arty sides of John Zorn’s more chaotic punk fired work and just weeps honest, blood sweat and tears.

A real smouldering 50 minute work-out that rarely lets up, and even in it’s slowed and slurred moments,chaos and disorder always trying to creep in. There’s great beauty and wonder with-in its push, pull and fight. Another great Gustafsson album and certainly one of the jazz albums of this year.

Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5Rating: 5 out of 5

Roger Batty
Latest Reviews

The Thing - Action Jazz
The Thing make really stonking , punked-up and energetic take on jazz fronted by the always amazing, prolific and quality bond Norwegian sax p...
190226   Columbia Noir # 7: Made In Br...
180226   Brutal Shift - Pain Has Broug...
180226   Jakob The Liar - Jakob The Li...
170226   Illustrious Corpses - Illust...
170226   Furious - Furious(Blu Ray)
170226   Re-Animator (40th Anniversary...
160226   Non Toxique Lost - 026750,9
160226   Asmus Tietchens & Achim Wolls...
160226   Parajekt - Parajekt
150226   Ekin Fil - Bora Boreas
Latest Articles

Crude ‘n’ Hope-corroding Wall...
Back in 2024, I got my first taste of Absurd Reality, and I was so impressed by how crude and nasty its take on walled noise was. Behind the project is South...
290126   Crude ‘n’ Hope-corroding ...
231225   Creepy Images Books - Killer Art
221225   Best Of 2025 - Music, Sound &...
041225   The Spectral Sounds of The Pr...
281025   Michael Hurst Interview - Unb...
071025   Xiphos - The Rise And Fall Of...
030925   Third Window Films - A Label ...
130825   HNW fest- Barcelona- 12th Apr...
250725   Raté interview - Walled-in F...
180625   Matthew Holmes - Of razor-sha...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2025. Twenty four years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom