Thing - Boot!

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 19 / 11 / 2013

Label: The Thing Records
Format: CD

intro

Compelling and improvisational sixth album from self-described Scandinavian garage jazz three-piece, The Thing

This is the sixth album by Scandinavian band The Thing. An appropriate name for a band that have built their reputation on their own brand of free form “garage jazz”, ‘Boot!’ is not the easiest thing to categorise or choose suitable words for. Garage jazz is not one of the larger genres out there. As far as I'm aware it doesn't even have its own section in HMV. in fact it probably doesn't even have its own section on the internet. Somehow in these most generic of times in which we live in it confidently bucks the trend with its individuality and complete imagination. Consisting of Mats Gustafsson on bass, baritone, tenor and soprano sax (presumably not all at once), Ingebrit Haker Flaten on electric bass and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums, the Thing lay waste to convention. While jazz is the main term thrown around them, I can see elements of drone with their use of distorted electric bass in places and even a bit of noise core with the embracive nature in which the band aren't afraid to have everything going on all at once but yet somehow manage to claw things back before it ends in total chaos. ‘Reboot’ really lets Nilssen-Love’s drumming lead the way, with varying bass parts thrown in here and there giving off an unhinged and edgy feeling. It grows in a way you wish it wouldn't as you get the feeling its intentions aren’t entirely honourable. It's like being followed by a recently sectioned cat. Then out of nowhere everything speeds up and comes together and things take a turn for the safer and mildly less obscure. A reworking of Duke Ellington’s ‘Heaven’ brings a far less erratic and slower pace to the album, but it soon veers off into a more progressive and loose structure giving each member a chance to explore their own sounds and boundaries. ‘Red River’ could sit along the best noise core bands’ output, only with sax and bass rather than guitars and feedback, but then suddenly things kick into a filthy beat that has a Led Zeppelin air about it with a rhythm section that holds things down in a fast yet steady manner. ‘Epilog’ finishes off the album in a lengthy, noisy, frantic and intermittently controlled way drawing a close to the madness, just as you’re tricked into thinking you can make sense of it all. Ultimately The Thing do not make the sort of music that is meant to be described or compartmentalised, but in its own unique way it is completely compelling.

Track Listing:-

Band Links:-