Copenhagen-based instrumental quintet
Mythic Sunship have explored the intersection of psychedelic rock and free jazz prolifically, releasing sprawling albums almost once a year since their inception around the start of the 2010s. Sixth album
Wildfire finds the band in a state of chaotic upheaval as always, but pushes their sound to even more frenetic places than usual. On prior records, the group's spaced-out riffing recalled
Hawkwind's cosmic rocking, but opening track "Maelstrom" is more chugging, more abrasive, and more threatening. The song blasts on for nearly 11 minutes, tandem screaming from lead guitars and saxophone held together by chunky power-chord progressions and stomping caveman drumming. It's an all-out attack with the same level of sinister energy as the
Stooges'
Fun House, and the song pushes itself until it liquefies into a puddle of noisy guitar chirps. Though
Wildfire moves through different expressions of the band's cacophonous bliss,
Mythic Sunship keep the energy at a steady boil throughout. The sauntering "Olympia" also struts along for over ten minutes, with multiple guitar patterns overlapping as the song rides a propulsive groove. By the end, the band have pushed the jam to a dizzying vibration. On previous albums, the group sometimes offered up a moment of repose in the form of mellower, new agey pieces. There's no such mellowness on
Wildfire, however, as they blast ecstatically through all five of the album's tracks, taking the energy down only in calm-before-the-storm moments. "Going Up" has several of these moments, where the arrangement briefly breaks down to
Michael Rother-esque guitar melodies, only to swell back into full band freak-outs. As
Mythic Sunship continue to evolve at a rapid pace, this chapter of their development is one of the strongest and most immediate.
Wildfire is alive with euphoric joy, and the energy is both unrelenting and contagious. ~ Fred Thomas