“When a power trio can share the stage comfortably with the likes of John McLaughlin and Black Sabbath, you know two things: They rock hard, yet provide enough harmonic content and improvisational daring to make it interesting. Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio does precisely that on its sixth album. Recorded live in the studio, Smells Funny is a metal-jazz excursion that often tips into the Sonny Sharrock zone, fueled by Ellen Brekken’s rumbling bass, Ivar Loe Bjørnstad’s insistent pulse and Mollestad’s hellacious chops and fertile imagination… When Frank Zappa famously said, “Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny,” he was referring to a moldering of the music. The Hedvig Mollestad Trio aims at providing an antidote with this audacious outing.”
So Hedvig is a girl, and she totally rocks. She rocks at blues rock, she rocks at jazz rock, she rocks at prog rock. Now, take all of her six-string skill, add in an equally talented bassist and an über-skilled drummer, douse liberally with the essence of classic rock, record it all live and you get Smells Funny. Stevie Ray and Jimi linger in the air around these 6 tracks but the HM3 shape things their own way. Sublime moments blossom on this quick album but the fragrance is intoxicating, so go ahead and take a whiff.
Standout track: First Thing To Pop Is The Eye