Sunday 10 March 2013

Fire! - You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago



Fire Starter

Having been all fired up in reviewing the Fire! Orchestra’s recent release Exit!, I’ll scorch similarly about this 2009 offering from Swede sax sensation Max Gustafsson, Johan Berthling [guitars and Hammond organ] and Andreas Werliin on percussion.

Opener If I Took Your Hand.... is a yowling saxophone rant by Gustafsson in typical musical angst. Second But Sometimes I Am has a slow bass and percussion intro that creeps along spookily for four minutes until the eerie creak and then squeal of the saxophone casts its wonderful pain, after which the song moves into its seventeen minute whole with a latter ending of guitar fuzz and organ variations.

The fuzz is continued into third track Can I Hold You For A Minute? which eventually merges with a manic Maxsax mind-meld, electronic and other effects pushing it forward into psychedelia. Thirteen minutes of it. This really is music to get far-outted on.  And upped. The album finishes on the comparatively brief and title track with a departure to a punchy saxophone played over a vague background distortion.

Not as dynamic overall as the orchestral Exit!, but the teases and temper tantrums of the Gustafsson saxophone are an absolute signature delight on this relatively stripped back precursor. 

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