Label: Vivo format: CD
Featuring guest musicans (or sound carriers as Damo Suzuki prefers to refer to his collaborators) from Rovo, Ruins and the legendary Hoppy Kamiyama of God Mountain records and Optical*8, The Fire of Heaven at the End of Universe was, as its subtitle indicates, recorded live at Tokyo’s UFO Club in March 2006. The recording quality is good, if very live sounding and lacking in much warmth or room sound, and the five improvised tracks gradually assemble themselves from a meandering freeform opening as the group and Damo adjust to each other into some hefty longer grooves which allow time for the music to breathe. Suzuki’s vocals are typically otherworldly – in that he sounds like he is beaming in from a parallel universe, singing, vocalising, wandering in ways which probably only make some kind of literal sense to himself, the stream of consciousness tripping off the ensemble’s chundering flow.
The set has an upbeat skronky feel to pieces like “The Crystal desert”, Yuji Katsui‘s violin scraping up what occasionally sounds more like brass sounds than strings, while Kenji Sato‘s bass throbs as Tatsuya Yoshida‘s drumkit rattles frentically. The tempo picks up a few beats as the performance morphs into the urgent opening of “Moonlight Warrior” before throttling back into an easier choppy passage. “The Last Night Of The Sun” opens with a scat from Damo whch has decidedly Satchmo-like qualities, his voice uncurling as the group join in, constructing a number which weaves a slow slumbery funk which delays the propulsive takeoff until the violin is good and ready to scatter itself on a field of faded out delay.
“Dress Your Girl” pops back in after a swift edit, continuing the mostly relaxed mood over half an hour of sometimes intense, infrequently faltering workout, the drums building the solid foundation of a muscular middle section which soon brings forward jerky rhythms circled by brightly-sparked keyboard and bass interaction. The violin follows along, but never quite locks in tightly to the sound until a good balance is achieved as they zoom off towards a more satisfyingly uptempo final section, the psychedelic impulse overtakes the noodling. The album closes with the full-spectrum spasms of “Another Dirty Weekend”, the jam winding up in a powerhouse foray into space improv, Damo intoning repetitive phrases as the band get into gear-shifted action, the violin and synths flickering and wibbling while the motorik underpinnings hammer out rhythms which shudder from forward-facing mania to switchback returns until they brim over with what ultimately feels like a very serious sort of musical energy.
-Linus Tossio-
