Today’s Sounds: The Thing with Barry Guy

Record:

The Thing with Barry Guy Metal! (No Business)

 
The Thing’s recent collaboration with Don Cherry’s daughter Neneh went all indie-viral. Now that they are in the spotlight, it’s time to see if they can hold the attention of their newfound fans in the pop world. While The Cherry Thing did not compromise the trio’s howling aesthetic, revisiting rock anthems like the Stooges’ “Dirt” and Suicide’s “Dream Baby Dream” while fronted by a sultry songstress is an easier sell than bludgeoning through 17-minute tracks of free jazz/noise.  On a two-LP-only set from a Lithuanian record label. And with a guest known more for his classical training than his alt-rock cred.

Still, there is some hope. If Peter Brötzmann’s 1968 Machine Gun remains the ideal free jazz entry point for adventurous rock fans, Metal! may not be far behind. Both have an edgy, punk feel, and both feature over-blowing sax specialists. Indeed, the Thing’s Mats Gustafson could be sonically mistaken for the elder German, and has been a member of Brötzmann’s tentet. Both records are anchored by two bassists, and while Metal! features only one drummer compared with Gun’s four-stick drive, Paal Nilssen-Love’s blur-motion inventiveness can propel any set.

Metal! is more clanging than headbanging, with power riffs replaced by Gustafson’s bristly sax swagger. Nilssen-Love flits like a hummingbird one instant but swoops like a hawk the next. The low-enders include regular Thing bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, heard in the left channel, and Barry Guy, long-time leader of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, on the right. The two take complementary approaches: Guy’s mastery of extended technique injects textures into each line, wooden thwack followed by haloed harmonics; Håker Flaten supplies oomph with regular rhythms but also takes the occasional flight of fancy.

Metal!’s  tracks are all named after radioactive elements. In an immediate test of mettle, “Lanthanum” leads off in familiar Thing territory, with unrelenting torrents of sound upheld by acidic sax lines and augmented by the weird thickets of Guy’s bass. “Promethium” is sparse, with one bass squealing while the other throbs time, Gustafson honking short blasts. These two strategies typify the approaches taken on the album.

As final enticement to noise rock fans, a two-minute cover of Lightning Bolt’s “Ride the Sky” ends the record, its stop/start frantic riff enveloped by shredded sax.
 

Track:

Bat for Lashes, “All Your Gold”

 
Here’s a track to sashay to in front of your mirror while you’re getting ready for night one of Pop Montreal. It’s the third track to be unveiled from the British band’s upcoming album The Haunted Man, out Oct. 23.
 
Bat For Lashes – All Your Gold by Bat for Lashes
 

Video:

Rich Aucoin, “Brian Wilson is A.L.I.V.E.”

 
This guy’s videos keep getting better. There are shades of the Chemical Brothers’ brilliant Michel Gondry-directed video for “Let Forever Be” in this mini-biopic of the titular Beach Boy. (See Rich Aucoin play Pop Montreal this Saturday at Divan Orange. Read why it’s essential here.)