Fire! - You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 13 / 12 / 2009

Label: Rune Grammofon
Format: CD

Largely uninspiring freeform jazz drones on debut album from improvisational Scandinavian jazz trio, Fire!

Review

As is implicated by the album title; snap, crackle and bebop seems to come closest to the promised plucking and plonking. On 'You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago' album, tardy times, however, seem to flourish. Fire! conjures up loosened bits from Pan-Scandinavian jazz escapades here. The Fire! trio operates from Goth City numero uno, Gothenburg, but have devoted a mere four tracks to this jazz album. The sessions for 'You Liked Me Me Five Minutes Ago' session, however, work their way through breezy freeform sonics before matters started to evaporate into a hazy mist. Fire! portray themselves as a bustling little trio; assembled around Mats Gustafson who, on saxophone and on the keyboards, tends to keep himself busy like a happy rabbit. 'You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago' relies in fact heavily on sonic drone music and not on any type of jazz. Johan Berthling is the bass player who can be held responsible for the groovy rhythms. And Andreas Werliin on drums and percussion follows suit. 'You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago' has nothing to do with a short attention deficit. Four tracks, covering three quarters of an hour, Fire! very well know timing and perfection. Non-descript, and unsavoury at times, 'Can I Hold You For A Minute', however, has a sense of jazz-drone sizzle that you only hear latterkly for the very first time on this record.