Bushman´s Revenge

The power trio is rock's most malleable form. It can run the gamut of rock's emotions, from a three minute pop song to a freeform freakout, as practitioners like The Jimi Hendrix Experience proved. Norwegian trio Bushman's Revenge have taken the blueprint and reinvented it with previous unconnected sources. The free jazz of Ornette Coleman (who always slung his horn like a guitar anyway) is wedded to the heavy sludge of stoner rock. Guitarist Even Helte Hermansen has crafted a language of monolithic riffs, No Wave scrubs and molten Metal wails. These confront the listener in full force on the riff-heavy "Count The Notes In Your Head" or the staccato pummeling of "Bølehøgda Rock City". However assertive the guitar may be, power trios stand and fall by their drummers. Gard Nilssen is equal to the task, particularly on the flailing "King Of Hello" where the guitar becomes a halo of feedback encircrling a maelstrom of drumming. Credit goes also to bassist and third-leg Rune Nergaard who matches his group mates blow for blow. Volume is far from the sole motif. The track "Hell Is For Hello" is built from absence. Its echoes and rumbles are light moving through mist, the sounds left when the riff is removed. Likewise, on the subdues "Ghostwriters In The Sky", Nergaard switches to upright bass to anchor the heavy silence. Nor is the album free of melody beyond riffing. The closer, "Champagne For My Real Friends", with its anthemic chorus and euphoric chords, is a well-earned, triumphant conclusion to an arresting album.
The Wire(UK)
Named after a dangerously hot chilli sauce, this young Norwegian power trio seeks to combine a jazz/improv rhythm section with a balls-to-the-floor rock guitarist to create an all-out free-rock-fusion that bursts through the door opened by label-mates Scorch Trio - and it succeeds brilliantly. If anything, there..s less fusion in the mix, and a lot more metal, with the trio switching from free-form meltdown to bone-crunshing Black Sabbath riffage with frightening precision. Hermansen..s guitar seems to encapsulate rock history, touching on everything from Henrdix..s feedback bliss-outs through Eddie Van Halen..s fretboard acrobatics, right up to the straight-faced histrionics of Acid Mothers Temple..s Kawabata Makoto. But it..s the supremely lithe and powerful bass/drum partnership that helps it achieve lift off; "No Sleep Till Hemmerfest" slips deliriously into an extended bout of ecstatic on-the-ride swing, like Elvin Jones backing Jeff Beck; and "King Of Hello" coalesces on a monumentally funky power riff that will have you headed for the chiropractor in the morning. Insanely good.
Jazzwise (UK)
Lovers of unhinged noise though we are, we must confess that Norwegian guitarist Even Helte Hermansen..s band Shining once drove us from a venue in a panic, so chaotic were their prog-fusion eruptions. This trio are a very different, thrillingly physical prospect, plying a skilfully attenuated blend of freeform jazz, psych rock and extreme metal, that..s equally respectful of Sonic Youth, Albert Ayler, Black Sabbath, Grisey and Zappa. More importantly, they kick ass.
Time Out (UK)
Another healthy dose of Scandinavian jazz/improv from the reliable Rune Grammofon. Bushman..s Revenge are three young lads on guitar, bass and drums who drop the usual overused names of Black Sabbath and Albert Ayler but manage to trascend influences with an overheated, paint-peeling onslaught of their own.
Plan B (UK)
Three young Norwegians named after a supremely hot chilli sauce offer a second album of proto-metal riffs and fuzzy improv. And when they riff, they riff good - be it obvious Sabbath homages dragged by their heels from the catacombs, or swinging math grooves that herk and jerk in pleasingly unexpected ways.
Rock-a-Rolla (UK)
Led by the down-tuned riffs of Even Helte Hermansen, the guitarist for the outstanding Norwegian prog-jazz group Shining, Bushman’s Revenge filters a heavy rock trio through the lens of an improvisational jazz outfit. The group cites inspiration as much from Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix as Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler, and You Lost Me at Hello oddly sounds a bit like all of it, even if it leans on the first two. Boundless free jazz meets structured rock and roll on the album, which comes recommended for fans of both styles.
Alarmpress (US)
En hardtslående attitude som heller mer mot rock enn mot jazz, mens jazzens frie strekk gjør seg svært gjeldende i de ellers komponerte låtene. Låtskriver Hermansen har lekt seg frem til noen drivende riff som danner grunnlag for de fleste sporene - litt skjevt, nokså tungt og fryktelig fengende.... I forlengelsen av for eksempel The Thing og Scorch Trio sier jeg bare følgende om Bushman..s Revenge: Go, go, go!
Jazznytt (NO)
Guttene i Bushman's Revenge begynner rått og brutalt som om det skulle være noe tungrock av Black Sabbath i oppstarten på deres andre CD. Men det er kun i gitarens lydbilde enn finner slike referanser. For disse musikerne jobber uten rockens konservative sans for struktur, takt og tone. Men som i alle tunge gitarbaserte rockeband er det gitaren som leder an, og det skal den når den er så elektrifisert som her, et mektig instrument for mektig musikk. Når vi først skal beskrive musikken er det også mulig å trekke sammenligninger til de døde; Jimi Hendrix og Albert Ayler, eller de norske nålevende Motorpsycho og Scorch Trio...Musikerne tar laus og raser fram med stort mot og det er ikke før i fjerde låten "Hell Is For Hello" at de roer seg ned litt med litt oppforsterket støy fra instrumentene. Romklang og ekkobruken ligner den som Terje Rypdal brukte på låten "Lontano" fra skiven "Sart" spilt inn i 1970. Høydepunktet for meg er slutten av den ti minutter lange "king of hello" hvor de vrir og vrenger en liten musikalsk snutt uten at jeg ramler av som lytter på ferden. En ting er at det skal fantasi til for å unngå at det blir kjedelig, men denne musikken engasjerer! Men de kan også ta det piano som i "Ghostwriters In The Sky".
Volum.no (NO)
Powertrio alltså, med musiker som trots sin ringa ålder – alla är 25 – har enorma mängder musik i bagaget. Liksom bolagskamraterna i Scorch Trio, Shining och MoHa! vägrar de vårda frijazzen i sin egen musik, istället skickar de fram långtradare med bredbent gitarrock, blytung stonerrock och glödande heavymetal. Det är svårt att framför allt inte tänka på Jimi Hendrix Experience, Hermansen leder och släpper gitarren fri på liknande vandringar i sidled och ut och in ur låtformatet.... I ”Ginsberg” blir Even Helte Hermansens gitarr till en sexsträngad saxofon à la Albert Ayler som gnager fram en brötig, bönande soloslinga. Det är vackert, rått, tjurigt, skört....På titellåten ”Hell Is For Hello” darrar kontrabasens stråke på egen hand inkilad i ett stort, ambient klangrum. Dynamik uppstår på det där egensinniga, norska sättet. Som avslutning bjuds ”Champagne For My Real Friends”, en charmig slagdänga med distad wha-wha-gitarr, stora, svulstiga ackord och en hejig läktarkör som sjunger ”na na na”. Är det smart, töntigt, modigt? Kvittar för mig, det är en festlig final på en sällsynt lycklig skiva.
Soundofmusic (SE)
Im 11. Jahr seines Bestehens zeigt das norwegische Label Rune Gramofon noch immer ein Doppelprofil, das von Anfang an vorhanden war: ruhig fließende, meditative Minimalismen einerseits, für die die ätherischen Lyrismen einer Susanne Wallumrod stehen, krachender Rock andererseits. Das junge Trio Bushman’s Revenge steht für die lautstarke Labelseite. Schon die Besetzung E-Gitarre, Bass und Drums ist rocktypisch, und auch wenn die drei Nordkracher Vorbilder von Jimi Hendrix über Black Sabbath bis Albert Ayler und Ornette Coleman nennen. Ruppig der Sound, knallhart die Riffs und kaum einmal ein Stück, das Zeit zur Entspannung lässt. Konnte das Debütalbum „Cowboy Music“ noch als Jazzrock durchgehen, muss für das zweite Album des Trios der erste Teil des Kompositums gestrichen werden.
Jazzpodium (DE)
Namensgeber von BUSHMAN‘S REVENGE ist ein Produkt von Bushman‘s Chilli Co. Die zu You Lost Me At Hello (RCD2083) gebündelten Schoten norwegischen Instrumentalrocktrios von Even Helte Hermansen, der seine Axt auch bei Shining schwingt, Rune Nergaard am Bass und Gard Nilssen an den Drums, ansonsten die Rhythmsection in Humvee, sind entsprechend scharfer Tobak. Das Scorch Trio mit Björkenheim als Modell anzuführen, ist naheliegend, aber eigentlich steckt hinter dem Konzept der alte Glaube, dass der Schlüssel zum Rockhimmel in der Hölle verwahrt wird.
Bad Alchemy (DE)
More reviews at:
http://runegrammofon.skryt.no/artists/bushman_s-revenge/revi ews-2083/