Scandinavian free jazz, garage trio, The Thing — Mats Gustafsson (bass, baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (electric bass) and Paal Nilssen-Love (drums) – are releasingBOOT!, their most hard-hitting, open and epic release to date, on November 12th. It follows their collaborative release with Neneh Cherry, 2012’s The Cherry Thing (Smalltown Supersound), and is their sixth studio album and the first album on their own label, The Thing Records. With dedicated fans in the rock, noise and jazz communities, BOOT! takes The Thing’s music to new, uncompromising levels and continues to solidify The Thing’s special and important position in the contemporary independent music world.
Recorded over three intense days, BOOT! breathes life and energy, capturing the deep riffs and distorted activities of the electric bass, the attack of the snare drum, the depth of the bass sax and epic lines of the tenor sax. It marks an important development in the trio’s endless search of musical poetic meltdowns. Throughout, they transform their roots, combine their own free jazz and punk aesthetics with elements of Ethiopian music, soul, funk and noise, and re-work album-oriented material by Duke Ellington and John Coltrane. Take a listen via “India,” premiered yesterday via The FADER.
https://soundcloud.com/thingjazz/india
“‘India,’ their cover of John Coltrane’s gorgeous piece from Impressions, swings pretty heavily with some raw sax and some incredibly excitable drums.” – The FADER
Formed in 1999 and named after Don Cherry, The Thing are known for playing a variety of compositions, including material by PJ Harvey, The White Stripes, The Stooges, The Sonics, The Cramps, Lightning Bolt, The Ex and many more. They transformed the music of these other artists into a contemporary context, making it their own. As individuals or as a group, they have collaborated with those including, Peter Brötzmann, Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, Thurston Moore, David Grubbs, Eye, The Ex, Pat Metheny, Arto Lindsay, Steve Reid, Kieran Hebden, Merzbow, Christian Marclay, The Nomads, Guy Picciotto, Neneh Cherry and more.
On Wednesday, November 20th, those in New York can see The Thing live at a special show at the Guggenheim curated by John Corbett and Christopher Wool. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/1bGdV72.
The Thing online: