‘The Thing’ are a Swedish jazz trio who took their name from a song by legendary trumpeter – and late stepfather of Neneh – Don Cherry. This collaboration is an extraordinary collection of visceral free jazz versions of songs by artists as diverse as MF Doom, The Stooges, Martina Topley Bird, saxophonist Ornette Coleman and Cherry himself. The results are astonishing; an interpretation of Suicide’s ‘Dream Baby Dream’ is a hypnotic blast of sax crashing against Cherry’s honeyed vocal, while an original song, ‘Cash Back’, writhes unchecked as Neneh states her fiscal case amid a barrage of drums and horns. A peerless left-field masterpiece.
9/10
Words by John Freeman