in extremis
| Format | CD |
| Country | USA |
| Recorded | 1998 |
| Issued | 1998 |
| Label | Cuneiform |
| Cat no. | RUNE 113 |
| Playing time | 52:15 |
| Reviewer | Rikard A Toftesund |
| THINKING PLAGUE in extremis |
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The COMA movement was an American parallel to the European RIO-groups, formed on the west coast of USA in 1984, and with initials which in the course of time have been given various interpretations: from Council Outside Music Associations to Committee of Musical Allies. Involved in the project wetre The Rascal Reporters, 5UUs and Motor Totemist Guild, beside Denver-based Thinking Plague.
On their two first albums, A Thinking Plague (83) and Moonsongs (85) the group presented a very original presentation of impulses, from Art Bears and News From Babel, and the crictically acclaimed In This Life (89) amazed a lot of "alternative rock" critics, both by being correctly timed and by its genuinely progressive appearance. But then nothing was heard until you descovered the group’s name in the stable of the last real progressive label in USA, Cuneiform.
The main character in the 1998 version of Thinking Plague is still the guitarist Mike Johnson, but apart from him, only keyboardist Shane Hotle and sax/clarinet player Mark Harris is left from the old line-up. A general feature of the COMA artists has been the exchange of both single members and whole groups, for example when 5UU’s and MTG fusioned in 1989 into U Totem. The 5UU members Dave Kerman (percussion) and Sanjay Kumat (keyboards) also contribute to In Extremis, but it is Mike Johnson’s remarkable talents as a composer, arranger and instrumentalist which carry this sensational creation.
The opening track Dead Silence builds rapidly from a whipping acoustic guitar riff, via hypnotizing, but especially intricate parts of rare heaviness, and ends in a multitude of tonal crossroads. The hair-raising complexity which characterizes almost every second of this 52 minutes CD, comprises any thinkable level of the "finished" sound, composition-wise as well as production-wise, rythmically as well as harmonically, lyrically as well as instrumentally. Thinking Plague is a band which mainly deals in rock concepts, rather than an ensemble with its real main business in a contemporary musical terrain, which can be true for certain other exponents for advanced progressive music (i.e. Art Zoyd and MTG). In Extremis deals with melodies, with deconstructed, but anyway clearly defined forms, so that the music assumes a forthcoming character whose ultimate impression is not of a "technically competent band with difficult material", but of all-embracing compositional authority. To describe this as "clever music" is parallel to accusing the London Symphony Orchestra for "showing off" when performing The Rite Of Spring.
But even if In Extremis is an experimental and searching issue, I will not call it avant-garde’ish. On the contrary, it represents an actual progressive initiative completely in, for, and by its own time. The spirit of Henry Cow, Egg (i.e. Civil Surface) and Kohntarkosz-era Magma is found here, so is the ballast from Charles Ives, John Cage, Yes, Slayer and Björk.
In other words, this is an outstanding example on the level of REALLY progressive rock today, and the CD can - in spite of an updated sound - be characterized as considerably more radical and creative than anything Crimson and Gentle Giant issued in the 70s, both towards other "progrock" and towards the common listener.
What you get here is heavy bass and grumpy guitars, raging precision drumming, keyboardism which, in spite of an identifiable load (real piano, hissing organ, synthesizers and sticky mellotron on the long closing epic Kingdom Come), almost redefines the place of the keyboards in a sound picture, you will find trained, but sober vocals from main vocalist Deborah Perry (free from moaning sentimentality) and inexplicable, abstract atmospheres which escape any formal description. Rarely do I hear such thoroughly prepared sound art, and the result is also painstakingly mixed, the production process seems to have been included even on the musical score.
A single excerpt from this CD effectively reduces Gentle Giant’s So Sincere to an average Status Quo track, but the compact composition of In Extremis is formed via the yearn for an expressive character, not based on the ambition to entertain the listener or the challenge of technical skill. The record contributes more to disturbing than to soothing, to break down myths and at the same time raise monuments.
The latter is not common in the history of progressive rock music, while it unfortunately is rich in overblown mythology. In Extremis contains everything the title promises, and indefinitely much more, it is a masterpiece which the stagnated and quasi-like prog rock genre of the 90s desperately needs - shocking, relieving.
The greatest event since the release of Present’s Le Poison Qui Rend Fou if you ask me.
© 2001 Tarkus Magazine