The Thing is an avant jazz power trio whose members include saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. BAG IT is their 12th album. Engineer Steve Albini, is a master when it comes to capturing live gig dynamics in a studio. This set was recorded at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, and contains every explosive and humorous tenet this trio lets loose in front of a club or festival audience. It must be said that the Thing aren't a "free jazz" group. The capture the energy and anarchy of punk rock as well as the improvisational power and rhythmic invention of vanguard jazz effortlessly; they mostly play music outside--far outside--of the jazz canon. The title track is the set's signature. At over nine minutes, it begins with a tentative melody by Gustafsson on baritone, followed by Nilssen-Love's cymbals playing in empty space before things begin to move slightly and slowly, with bass entering-first in solo and then in rhythm section mode--to a full-on engagement with the trio roughly four-and-a-half minutes in. Other tracks however, such as "Drop The Gun," (a cover of a 54 Nude Honeys tune), bring the punk thang to your face with a killer four bar intro played triple time, and Merzbow-worthy electronic noise kicking it full bore. The same goes for the reading of the Ex's "Hidegen Fujnak A Szelek" that opens the album. Hot Doug," a group improvisation sounds quite literally like Merzbow or Maurizio Bianchi is in the band, but the ballad works so beautifully because of its harmonic tension and the dramatic control over all the elements these players have. That control is evident everywhere in a startling cover of Duke Ellington's "Mystery Song," where the arrangement allows for the full on history of jazz to be displayed. BAG IT is the album punters should gravitate to first when they consider the Thing's catalog.