Thulebasen – Gate 5

Figuring out exactly what drives Thulebasen is something I’ve found slightly more difficult than usual. Reading their press and interviews in assorted Danish papers and websites I found that their admitted influences are almost exclusively from Denmark, and those of you reading this who enjoy nothing more of a spring evening than researching early 70s eurorock will find much to interest yourselves with in Thulebasen’s company, while those of you already familiar with the music of Casa Sui, Dragontears and Spids Nogenhat will find Gate 5 a reassuringly familiar listen. They are what was once known as Heavy, a description that was often applied to British bands such as Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Groundhogs and a host of other now barely recalled festival bands, bands whose names are synonymous with grinding blues riffs, lengthy guitar and drum solos and muddy fields. Listening to Gate 5, my immediate impression was of a band recapturing the riffs and rhythms of what is now approaching four decades ago, but their influences are of course drawn from a far wider range of sources than those of the early 70s rock scene, and and anyone else listening to the album might find themselves picking up on any number of musical references and stylistic nods to bands and music from either side of 1975.

Thulebasen’s improvisational approach to their own sounds has been restructured in the studio with quite some attention to detail, with keyboard and sampling making appearances among the more obvious electronics and generated tones that often introduce one of their songs, and despite the avowed improvisational approach Thulebasen are also apparently quite skilled actual songwriters, and this is what makes the first track, (also the album’s title track) not merely listenable but also a compelling introduction to the band and their second album. A thudding drum and electronica led intro suddenly quickens its pace and just as quickly morphs into a chorus of gasping vocals and crushing guitar, altering yet again into a laid back agglomeration of picked guitar and spoken vocal. In under six minutes Thulebasen present us with a sequence of ideas that would in less experimental hands make for an entire album, and with Gate 5 clocking in at around 65 minutes in its entirety, you might already suspect that the three piece will run out of inspiration at around the 40-minute mark. They actually don’t although there are, inevitably, one or two moments where the pace seems to slacken. While the entire album does possess several flaws, its tribute to the skills of Thulebasen themselves that these are less than prominent throughout. You will however need to appreciate the levels of experimentation and ensuing dense, swirling soundscapes that Thulebasen create to really get it about the whole album and anyone looking for a sharply crafted, glitzy pop record might want to look elsewhere.

Partly, this is because Thulebasen’s approach to their tunes only really alters in the track length, and not in how their music is constructed. Repetition requires an acute sense of timing to work effectively, and for the most part Thulebasen keep things on the right side of Indulgent, with the definite exception of 18 minute instrumental “Felaia”, which I personally thought was around 7 minutes too long, although other listeners might think it needs to go even shorter to really work as a piece of improvised music and doubtlessly some of you reading this will want Thulebasen to release a complete album based around one track, which they could achieve with some element of at least artistic success. Perhaps “Felaia” really serves to highlight their strengths throughout the rest of the album though; the droning insistence of ‘Raga Gemini’ is measured and the electronics and reverb that transfigure the basic chord structures of “Kylling” and “Monster” aren’t allowed to dominate the musicality, and even when Thulebasen drift off into atonal noise, as they do on both of these tracks, their core discipline as musicians holds everything together without losing the immediacy of their own enthusiasm.

Most importantly, Gate 5 manages, thanks to its production, to sound both defined and focused, maintaining the albums momentum right where it threatens to slide into so much repetitive mulch. Thulebasen are too skilled to allow this to happen and their sense of timing is entirely their own, and as on each of the 9 tracks they weave their own particular vision, augmenting their guitar/drum/guitar format with an array of keyboards, saxophone, random studio sound and their very own brands of chaos and structuralism, the results begin to sound very distant from those of both their known influences and others whom we are only permitted to guess at, and this involves more than just a question of the distance time has placed between Thulebasen and those other, earlier musicians whose work informs their own. Already acclaimed in their native Denmark as one of the best albums of 2011, ‘Gate 5′ contains more twists and surprises than one listen can reveal, and is as accomplished a collection of experimental guitar music as Thulebasen themselves set out to achieve.

Tambourhinosceros/Escho