The power of three: twangy blues jam meets soaring gothic soundscape in Bushman’s Revenge’s proggy mockery of the upper class
 
The debut Hubro album by the highly regarded Norwegian power-trio Bushman’s Revenge – cult stars of the Rune Grammofon label for a decade – operates on several levels simultaneously. It can even sound like the work of several different trios. After a hypnotic experimental prelude that creates a sort of audible weather system, with the delicate, bare-wire glissandos of Even Helte Hermansen’s soprano guitar heard against Gard Nilssen’s Pink Floyd-ish beaten drums and the unusually reticent, elegantly dancing measures of Rune Nergaard’s electric bass, ‘Et Hån Mot Overklassen’ (which Google Translate renders as “A Mockery of the Upper Class’) begins to settle into a form of strikingly virtuosic and proggy jazz-rock; the instruments sound pretty much like guitar, bass and drums are meant to do, and the opening numbers follow a recognisable jazz model of theme/improv/theme. Then, as the long, riverine meanders of guitarist Even Helte Hermansen really get into their stride, and the effects-pedal expressionism of his chosen settings and style thicken the timbre into a growling axe-attack, things steadily become chewier and more challenging.
 
By the time you get deep into the heart of the album, past rumbling audio-sculptures, tamboura drones, found-sound samples, the twangy blues jam and soaring gothic soundscape, it can be hard to be sure where one instrument ends and another begins.

1. Sly Love With A Midnight Creeper (5:28)
2. Folk Kremtar No Av Og Til Berre
I Lause Lufta Og (4:40)
3. Happy Hour For Mr. Sanders (5:56)
4. A Bottle A Day Keeps The Wolves At Bay (7:38)
5. The Curious Case Of The Resting
Blue Steel Face (4:43)
6. Moves Away From The Door (4:19)
7. Greetings To Gisle (8:03)
8. Ladies Night At The Jazz Fusion Disco (6:11)
9. Toten (4:40)
10. Hei Hei Martin Skei (14:14)
 
Gard Nilssen: drums, percussion, vibraphone, Wurlitzer and electronics
Rune Nergaard: bass, organ, toy piano, percussion and electronics
Even Helte Hermansen: soprano, baritone and additional guitars, percussion and electronics
 

Recorded in Amper Tone by Johnny Skalleberg.

Mixed by Bård Ingebrigtsen

Mastered by Johnny Skalleberg

Produced by Bushman´s Revenge