Bushman's Revenge

You Lost Me At Hello

Label: Rune Grammofon Country: Norway

"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 "B¿leh¿gda 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)