You Liked Me Five Minutes Ago

Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s trio with bassist Johan Berthling and drummer Andreas Werliin is a more meditative, even trancelike unit than his other well-known group, The Thing. Fire!’s music is patient and repetitive, with Berthling often playing just one note, or a two- or three-note phrase, over and over again as Werliin ticks out a rock-steady beat, slightly adorned with gentle cymbal strikes. Gustafsson adds Fender Rhodes and tabletop electronics to the mix sometimes, and Berthling doubles on Hammond organ here and there. But when the saxophonist is in full post-Peter Brötzmann cry, the music still rises to a fever pitch, as though he’s having a freakout in a quiet room. “But Sometimes I Am” is this album’s beating heart, rising from a simmer — vocalist Mariam Wallentin croons softly during the long, atmospheric middle stretch — to a Krautrockish roar, as Werliin lays down a driving motorik beat and Berthling adds crunching electric guitar over Gustafsson’s gritty keyboards and washes of static.