Canada’s Nihilist Spasm Band are one of the most joyous groups in free music, for the way they collapse all kinds of music – free jazz, improvisation, rock’n’roll, folk – into an ungainly yet thrilling stew of not-quite-noise. While they’re the obverse of the more studious side of collective improvisation, they share its drive towards of-the-moment exploration of human interaction; on No Record, the Nihilist Spasm Band’s first album of many, their riotous clatter takes guitar, bass, percussion, violin, kazoos, and more, and smelts them into a seasick clamour. There’s even a thudding, disassembled non-rock song here, “Dog Face Man” – the Nihilist Spasm Band, it seems, could do almost anything.

– Jon Dale