The Thing - Boot! (2013)

Scandinavian improv trio the Thing (saxist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love) have released a string of albums and played hundreds of gigs worldwide in joyous defiance of the idea that raw noise and indifference to careful planning are inimical to music-making. Last year, alongside former pop singer and Brit award-winner Neneh Cherry, they created an inspired brew of experimental pop and sax-wailing ferocity, and though this studio set for the core band doesn't stray as close to familiar song-shapes, the Thing always suggest storylines and melody even at their most merciless – the result of orthodox-music experience deep enough to generate a rich deconstructivist palette. Gustafsson charges into the opener with maddened-elephant bass-saxophone grunts over the wonderful Nilssen-Love's crunching rock drumming, Reboot is a tonally contrasting episode of dissonant whistles and high-pitched snarls over a speeding-train snare-drum pulse, and the frantic Red River is a percussion tour de force. The Thing are an invigorating restorative rather than a regular diet, but long may they flourish.

Tracklist:

1. India (John Coltrane) 06:54
2. Reboot (The Thing) 10:16
3. Heaven (Duke Ellington arr. Mats Gustafsson) 09:50
4. Red River (Ingebrigt Håker Flaten) 08:01
5. Boot (The Thing) 07:10
6. Epilogue (The Thing) 13:59

Personnel:

Mats Gustafsson – bass, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – electric bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums