(Without Noticing)

Released

After collaborative albums with guitarists Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, the original trio incarnation of Fire! — Mats Gustafsson on saxophones, electronics, and keyboards; Johan Berthling on bass and keyboards; Andreas Werliin on drums — re-emerged in 2013 with this hard-grooving, at times almost doomy album. Berthling’s bass line on “Your Silhouette on Each (Without Noticing)” is reminiscent of a crawling Black Sabbath epic like “Hand of Doom.” On “At Least On Your Door (Without Noticing)” (yes, all the track titles end like that), an ominous snippet of keyboard, like a sample repurposed on a hip-hop record from ecstatic dance-propulsion to fuel for hardman posturing, floats atop a rattling, driving Werliin beat as Gustafsson emits baritone sax lines that sound like a furnace on the brink of explosion.

Phil Freeman