About a year since the Norwegian trio released their first album with legendary saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, Ich Bin N!ntendo present Look. Without any guest artists (but once again recorded and mixed by Lasse Marhaug), the material does not differ significantly from its predecessor, and it still makes for a sprawling discordant mess in the most enjoyable way. Like a free jazz metal band playing punk covers out in a garage, there is a visceral, but fun sensibility to be had within all of this chaos.
Without Gustafsson on this album, IBN is Christian Skår Winther on guitar, Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard on bass, and Joakim Heibø Johansen on drums.The trio's instrumentation may be more in league with a punk band, and there is definitely that element to them, but the penchant for building up complex rhythmic structures to just pull them apart into a massive squall is more free jazz in its concept."Cream Corn Wand" leads off with an abused guitar that almost sounds like a brass instrument being assaulted for two straight minutes before the rhythm section jumps in.When it does, it manages to convey some sort of overdriven noise jazz funk from deep within the noise.
The erratic drums and bent strings of "Live and Let Live" might not exert as many changes as some of the other compositions on here, but in its short duration it covers quite a bit with a similar funkiness to it.The random noises opening "Star City" paired with some sort of horrendous vomit like guttural noises bears a passing resemblance to Yamatanka Eye's vocals both with the Boredoms and Naked City, but the rest of the song more closely resembles the latter.Oscillating between jazzy improvisation and thrashing metal, the trio lock together tightly to just fall apart again, with a distinctly jovial and loose sound.
One thing different on Look is the use of vocals, or at least some approximation of them.Opener "Endless Bovis" features either Winther or Johansen screaming from far in the background, and with the messy rhythmic structure it sounds like a garage band skronking out even more so.When the moments of restraint appear, there is a sense of tension that builds and builds to a satisfying free form freakout.The screaming is also a prominent facet of closer "Let's Toast!," and with the rapid, pummeling drums and overdriven guitar and bass roaring, everything melts into a wall of fuzzed out noise
Probably the strongest characteristic of Look is simply that sense of looseness and fun that pervades the entire album.Rather than being stuffy and overly formal in their approach, the trio bathe in the noise and chaos that they make, and it is that sense of garage exuberance that works so well.Punk is a word that has been so overwrought as to lose its meaning, but the spirit of it is alive and well with Ich Bin N!ntendo, even if it has been entirely recontextualized.
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