Here we have more instrumental jazz-rock/prog from the folks at Rune Grammofon, Smells Funny from the Hedvig Mollestad Trio, who are comprised of guitarist Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen, bassist Ellen Brekken, and drummer Ivar Loe Bjornstad. Smells Funny is the bands sixth album in seven years, and contains six tracks of lengthy jams and explosive arrangements. "Beastie, Beastie" kicks things off in manic fashion, Hedvig's guitar solos falling somewhere between John McLaughlin, Terje Rypdal, and Bill Frissel, her angular, feedback driven explorations melting everything in her path, while the more post-rock sounds of "First Thing to Pop is the Eye" starts off slowly and eventually builds to reveal another gargantuan solo from the leader. "Jurasek" takes a jazzier approach, steady rhythms allowing the guitarist to interject some moody, looping lines, while "Sugar Mountain Rush" brings the rock back to the forefront, a blistering assault of hard rock guitar firepower that will get your pulse racing. The trio fires off some potent riffing on the heavy blues rock of "Bewitched, Dwarfed, and Defeathered, which also includes a booming bass solo courtesy of Brekken and insane drum blasts from Bjornstad, and the album concludes with the lengthy prog/avant-jazz piece "Lucidness", a furious blast of dissonant noise featuring some scalding guitar from Hedvig.
Not for the weak of heart, Smells Funny is a furious slice of guitar mayhem from the Hedvig Mollestad Trio. If you like your jazz-rock fast, furious, and lethal, you've come to the right place.
Track Listing
1) Beastie, Beastie
2) First Thing to Pop is the Eye
3) Jurasek
4) Sugar Rush Mountain
5) Bewitched, Dwarfed, and Defeathered
6) Lucidness
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