Frownland

113. The Peter Brotzmann Octet - The Complete Machine Gun Sessions (1968)

Screeching saxophones, clarinets, clattering and somewhat senseless drums, bassists making their bows pay for what they did, and fumbling piano. It's a ****ing mess...but it's the best mess you've ever heard. This is the loudest jazz out there, and it's probably heavier than most of the metal bands you listen to. Led by the great saxophonist Peter Brotzmann, the group has other great reed aficionados Evan Parker and William Breuker. We also have Fred Van Hove on the piano with Peter Kovald and Buschi Niebegall on basses. What really steals the show, for me at least, are the drums which are provided by Sven-Ake Johansson and Han Bennink. Bennink is a ****ing madman. This is free jazz at its best and most abrasive, well worth the time to listen to if you're a free jazz or cacophony fan in any way. It's basically Albert Ayler on crack-cocaine.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.