The Thing
The Thing is a powerhouse Scandinavian free jazz trio renowned for its raw, ecstatic energy and its radical reinvention of song. Formed in 2000, the group features Mats Gustafsson on saxophones, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums.
Their sound is a visceral, punk-inflected blast, drawing equally from the fire music of Albert Ayler and Peter Brötzmann and the raw power of rock, noise, and garage bands. While masterful improvisers, The Thing is also famous for its explosive, unconventional covers, tearing apart songs by artists like The White Stripes, PJ Harvey, and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the same ferocity they apply to free jazz. The result is a massively influential, intensely physical music that bridges avant-garde tradition and contemporary fury.
Sounds Like a Sandwich
Sounds Like a Sandwich
“The EP begins with CSE’s title tune, and you get the idea when Gustafsson and McPhee begin to rip the air in the middle of the short song. CSE’s two guitarists manage to recreate Jimmy Page’s huge, primitive guitar riff on “Whole Lotta Love,” which is still effective after more than thirty years, but it is clear that no singer can contest Robert Plant’s vocal cords. In any case, Gustafsson’s baritone solo and McPhee’s supporting tenor sax skyrocket the song into the stratosphere. Nilssen-Love adds some Elvin Jones-que sophistication to Bonham’s original thumping. The Yeah, Yeah Yeahs’ “Art Star” was covered on The Thing’s Garage; here it enjoys the reckless rhythm that CSE injects into the chorus.
McPhee shines through Don Ayler’s “Our Prayer,” first on his muted pocket trumpet and later in a beautiful tenor sax duet with Gustafsson. CSE’s Bard Enerstad’s organ adds a gospelish tinge to this quiet track, while Cato Salsa’s gritty guitar pushes it to the edge. The concluding track, “Hardcore Mama,” is a simple tune, just like the opener, that uses a catchy guitar riff and lets Gustafsson and McPhee blow the chorus as if they were in some left-of-center R&B brass band.” -Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz
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Bass, Vocals – Christian Engfelt
Double Bass – Ingebrigt Håker Flaten
Drums – Jon Riise, Paal Nilssen-Love
Guitar, Organ, Theremin, Vocals – Bård Enerstad
Guitar, Vocals – Cato Salsa
Saxophone – Joe McPhee, Mats Gustafsson
Co-producer – Joakim Haugland
Design – Rune Mortensen
Mixed By, Mastered By – Helge Sten
Engineer [Live Sound] – Hans Petter Heggli
Photography – Thomas Reisæter
Producer – Cato Salsa Experience, The Thing
Recorded – Thomas Hukkelberg
Recorded live at Kongsberg Jazzfestival 2004.
Mixed and mastered at Audio Virus Lab.
Credits are divided into two sections. Engfelt, Riise, Enerstad and Salsa are credited as Cato Salsa Experience.
Håker Flaten, Nilssen-Love, Gustafsson and McPhee are credited as The Thing With Joe McPhee
Shinjuku Crawl
Shinjuku Crawl
Mats Gustafsson: Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Slide Saxophone Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Otomo Yoshihide: Guitar
Recorded live at Pit Inn, Tokio, on 2nd October 2007 by Jim O’Rourke
Mixed at Chicago Mastering Service on April 3rd, 2009 by Ingebrigt Håker Flaten & Bob Weston
Mastered Chicago Mastering Service on April 11th, 2009 by Bob Weston
Producer – Otomo Yoshihide & The Thing
Co-producer – Joakim Haukland
Design [Sleeve] – Rune Mortensen
Smalltown Superjazz 169
She Knows…
She Knows…
Recorded and mixed at Nord Studios in Stockholm, February 21 & 22, 2001. Engineered by Leif Allanson. Mastered by Christofer “Hoffe” Stannow at Cosmos Studios in Stockholm.
Produced by Christian Falk & Mats Gustafsson. Executive producer: Conny Charles Lindstrøm.
Mats Gustafsson – reeds
Joe McPhee – pocket trumpet and tenor saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
Mono
Mono
“At this juncture The Thing and its members need little by way of introduction. Individually their output plots a course through much of the territories mapped by contemporary improvised music, shines a light on its more outré reaches, and stretches the wallets of even the most committed listener. Moreover, seeing any of their names affiliated with a project has become a seal of quality, much as the FMP logo did a generation prior.
Self confessed Discaholics, the announcement that newly formed The Thing Records would ensure the eventual availability of all The Thing’s oeuvre on vinyl initially sounded like a way for the trio to self medicate. For the rest of us, given that last year alone the individual members appeared on over 40 releases, the news was greeted more as luxury than necessity. However, the label’s current release schedule boasts 3 new recordings (last year’s Boot, a Record Store Day exclusive Boot EP and forthcoming live record with Thurston Moore) and only one re-issue, 2011’s Mono.
Whilst any new The Thing release feels like a virtually mandatory purchase at this point, what justifies the acquisition of Mono on LP to those who already own the original Smalltown Superjazzz release (other than Gustafsson’s own ‘discaholic parameters’; cover art, feel, smell…), is the fact that there is over 30 minutes of previously unreleased music included.
To describe the sounds herein is probably rather like preaching to the choir at this juncture. The Thing, now entering their 14th year, have carved out a very singular niche. John Peel’s adage regarding favourites The Fall seems appropriate here, “They are always different; they are always the same… The Fall are always identifiably The Fall, but they do seem to evolve.” This recording touches the key facets of The Thing’s sound; taut muscularity, deft and fleet footed musicality, energy seemingly tapped direct from the Ur source, all tempered by an understanding that The Stooges swing every bit as hard as Ornette’s Atlantic sides or Coltrane’s classic quartet.
If, as Gustafsson would have it, ‘one piece of vinyl a day keeps the doctor away’, then surely 2 LPs worth of material this vital, and the promise of more to come, ought to keep listeners in good health indefinitely.”
-Matthew Grigg, Free Jazz Blog
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Mats Gustafsson: Reeds
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Bass
All compositions by Mats Gustafsson (STIM), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (TONO) and Paal Nilssen-Love (TONO) except “Alfies Theme” by Sonny Rollins, Bruremarsj (Trad.) and “Viking” by Paal Nilssen-Love.
Recorded 31st January- 1st February 2011 by Casey Rice in MONO at Headgap Studios, Melbourne, Australia. Mastered 14th April 2011 at Chicago Mastering Service by Bob Weston and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten. Design by Rune Mortensen. Produced by The Thing, executive production by Joakim Haugland.
Live at Blå
Live at Blå
“There are all the violent shrieks and wails one expects from Gustafsson, the polyrhythmic, Paul Lovens-ian drumming of Paal Nilssen-Love and Flaten’s updated Mingus style. But there also are enough quiet, almost introspective moments that highlight each musician’s technical facility and make the louder portions even more forceful.” -Andrey Henkin, All About Jazz
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Track 1: ”Old Eyes” by Joe McPhee (Jomac/BMI), ”Haunted” by Norman Howard (Stork Music, BMI), ”Cha Lacy’s Out East” by Charles Taylor (Copyright Control).
Recorded live at Blå on the 26th of June, 2003, by Søren Brandt. Mixed and Mastered by Ingar Hunskaar at Strype Audio. Produced by The Thing. Co-produced by Joakim Haugland. Photo by Anders Minge. Design by Rune Mortensen.
Mats Gustafsson – reeds
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
Immediate Sound
Immediate Sound
“You can feel the shared commitment to explore and push forward the musical envelope, and the joy when they lock into a new theme, as Gustafsson and Nilssen-Love do on their tight duel on the end of the first part, or the methodical building of a new theme by Flaten on the second part.It continues with lyrical playing from Vandermark on the third part and then transforms into a percolating saxophone duel between Gustafsson and Vandermark, where Vandermark injects some funky riffs. Then it all reaches its inevitable climax on the fourth and last part, where Vandermark and Gustafsson, together on baritone saxophones, begin with a busy and nervous dialogue, that becomes bluesy when Flaten and Nilssen-Love join in, but ultimately explodes into an electrifying and spirited maelstrom.” –All About Jazz
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The Thing with Ken Vandermark is:
Mats Gustafsson – alto and baritone saxophones
Ken Vandermark – tenor saxophone
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
All music by Gustafsson (STIM) / Håker Flaten (TONO) / Nilssen-Love (TONO) / Vandermark (ASCAP)
Recorded in concert at The Hideout, Chicago, April 21st 2007 by Amos Scattergood. Mixed June 2007 by ken Vandermark, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Amos Scattergood. Mastered July 2007 by Ausdun Strype at Strype Audio. Produced by The Thing and Ken Vandermark. Co-produced by Joakim Haugland. Photos by Ken Vandermark. Sleeve design by Rune Mortensen
Dream Baby Dream / Cashback
Dream Baby Dream / Cashback
Mats Gustafsson: Reeds
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten: Bass
Paal Nilssen-Love: Drums
Neneh Cherry: Vocals
Smalltown Super Jazz 23412
Collider
Collider
Hamid Drake – drums
Ingebrigt Haker Flaten – bass
Mats Gustafsson – tenor and baritone saxophone
Kent Kessler – bass
Paal Nilssen-love – drums
Ken Vandermark – tenor and baritone saxophone, Bb clarinet
Recorded November 1st 2015 at Manggha Hall, Krakow
Recorded by Rafal Drewniany
Mixed and mastered by Dave Zuchowski, One Room Studio
Photos by Krzysztof Penarski
Desgin by Malgorzata Lipinska
All compositions by Hamid Drake (Smiling Forehead / BMI), Mats Gustafsson (STIM / Cien Fuegoes), Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (TONO, Cien Fuegos), Kent Kessler (BMI), Paal Nilssen-Love (TONO, Cien Fuegos), Ken Vandermark (Twenty First Mobile Music, ASCAP, Cien Fuegos)
Not Two 930
Zaiks / Biem 2016
Released October 2016
Bag It!
Bag It!
“While the members of The Thing each put out enough records to keep you sated for the next group issue, each Thing record is worth the wait, and Bag It! is certainly no exception. Deftly combining the worlds of jazz, rock and noise (without falling into the dreaded “jazz fusion” territory), this record is something that anyone either curious about jazz or completely immersed in the genre should seek out ASAP.” -Adam Kivel, Consequence, 2009
Action Jazz
Action Jazz
Stewart Smith of The Quietus described Action Jazz as “More accessible than subsequent releases, […it] finds a balance between the stoopid-fun [sic] of their garage material, the swing of their [Don] Cherry inspired free-bop, and the open-form weirdness to come.”
Writing for All About Jazz, Eyal Hareuveni stated that on Action Jazz, The Thing “deliver one of their heaviest performances,” and called the album “another testimony to the success of this group’s risk-taking and barrier-shattering attitude.”
In a review for Rockfeedback Magazine, Thomas Hannan commented: “It might be because they’re so adept at it, it might be because they’re playing skewed rock songs, it’s probably got something to do with the unrelenting pace and wide eyed wonder at sound itself that The Thing seem to possess and display within every track, but Action Jazz is one heck of a lot of fun.”
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Mats Gustafsson – baritone sax, alto sax, slide sax
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – double bass
Paal Nilssen-Love – drums
Copyright © – Smalltown Superjazzz
Recorded At – Atlantis Studio
Mixed At – Atlantis Studio
Mastered At – Cosmos Mastering
Pressed By – Dicentia
Co-producer – Joakim Haugland
Design – Rune Mortensen
Liner Notes – Conny Charles Lindström
Mastered By – Christofer “Hoffe” Stannow*
Mixed By – Janne Hansson, Mats Gustafsson
Photography By [Studiophotos] – Lotta Melin
Producer – The Thing
Recorded By – Janne Hansson
Recorded and mixed at Atlantis Studio, Stockholm.
Mastered at Cosmos Mastering, Stockholm.