Peter Brötzmann - Machine Gun (1968)

Machine Gun, the greatest ever European free jazz record, is not only alike of the sound machine guns, it also sounds a lot like a bunch of wild African elephants coming down the stairs. This record is so bombastic, so brutal and so over the top, that it's hard to imagine it was made in 1968, before the BYG Actuel storm, before a lot of great American free jazz happened. The Europeans were influenced by the Afro-American cats like Ayler and Sanders, who wanted more out of jazz then great, coherent melodies.

The urgency of this record was never topped by Peter Brötzmann and his fluctuating crew (on this album, an in-cre-di-ble line-up: Evan Paker, Han Bennink, Willem Breuker, Fred Van Hove, Peter Kowald, you name them) afterwards. This record catches the time it was made in: a ferocious time with a lot of uncertainties, and a lot of anger, as well. This record is as much an essential as most of the output by Ayler and his buddies.

machine gun
VBR