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"Guitar/drum/bass trio spilling streams of disorientating one-note melodies into thick washes of primitive howling sound-blasts." Foxydigitalis.com: This is without a doubt one of the most phenomenal improv albums I've spun in quite a while. If you are a fan of psychedelic music of any sort then you need this- you really need this. Taking cues from free-jazz and a little bit of kraut rock as a starting point, the Dutch trio The Julie Mittens contort time and space with their upward shifting pulses of sound. It's a simple setup- just guitar, bass, and drums; but the magic is in how these basic ingredients are intuitively molded into something much greater. This is free improvisation at its best. There's no aimless noodling here, just pure ego-less sound communion. This disc is a document of a single performance in Baltimore late last year. Things start off with an intense bass and drums centered track that sets up a space of pure energy. There is no solid ground to stand on as sounds shift in and out of focus and only occasionally settle into place. The guitar tone is spaced out and free- sailing smoothly over top of the rhythmic jungle set up by the other players. A similar approach is given to the third track, only with the energy level turned up several notches. This piece feels like more of a forceful push upwards instead of a gentle tug. The centerpiece of the album is the second track which features some truly otherworldly vocals from Baltimore native Lexie Mountain. Here, the band slows way down to create a haunting backdrop for Lexie's moaning, wordless vocals. The effect is somewhere between Fursaxa and Diamanda Galas- ethereal yet quite disturbing. All in all it's an intense journey by a truly talented set of musicians. To me, this is right up there with Nels Cline's more freaky material and should probably be more critically acclaimed then it is. I give it my complete support and approval. (10/10) (Charles Franklin) [link]   Allmusic.com: With an endearing name like the Julie Mittens, one would expect this Dutch trio to be one of those impossibly cute twee pop bands who play 90-second pop-punk tunes about lollipops and kittens. There are probably forms of music that have less in common with that style than The Julie Mittens, but it's hard to imagine what they are. Primarily inspired by the free improvisation scene of the '60s (the members name John Coltrane's legendary The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording as their direct inspiration), the Julie Mittens are fundamentally a rock power trio with little to no interest in playing rock music. The four tracks are live-in-the-studio improvisations named after the date they were recorded (tracks one and three are both called "December 12, 2006") and ranging in length from nine-and-a-half to just over 22 minutes. Guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos favors extended drones, often exploring all the harmonic possibilities of a single note for several minutes at a time. Bassist Michael Van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek disdain the traditional rhythm section role; even on the almost rockist "April 3, 2007," the shortest and most traditionally structured track here, Fabriek favors machine-gun drum rolls and pealing cymbal crashes over a standard groove, although Van Dam's hypnotic repeated bass pattern does provide a solid foundation for Fabriek and Schakenbos to wig out over. Crucially, however, that track is about as close as The Julie Mittens ever gets to the pure unstructured noise that many assume free improvisationm by definition, must be. The other three pieces are exercises in tension and release, with all three players exhibiting admirable control and collective skill. Not nearly as chaotic as many examples of the style, The Julie Mittens is a solid stepping stone into the world of free improv for fans of instrumental post-rock bands like Mono or Godspeed You Black Emperor!. (Stewart Mason) [link]   Time Out New York: While the band’s name suggests fey indie pop, this transcendent Dutch trio plays some of the most rousing free rock you’ll find. The term free rock itself might conjure visions of musicians flailing away recklessly, but there’s plenty of structure to these four long improvised pieces—just no stricture. Guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos casts keening sheets of expertly crafted feedback as otherworldly melodies, while bassist Michael van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek rumble and propel the band’s gargantuan sound ever outward. “April 3 2007”—named, like the three other tracks, simply for its recording date—ranks among the heaviest rock sounds ever spewed (think Skullflower or the Dead C at their most fervent). But “April 25 2007” finds the Julie Mittens comparatively pensive through an evocative 22 minutes of noirish simmer. Totally exhilarating. (5/6) (Mike Wolf) [link]   Foxy Digitalis (Dec. 19, 2007): Dutch trio, The Julie Mittens, after an impressive series of cd-r’s have graced us with a vinyl release delivering yet another walloping punch from their arsenal. Since 2002, The Julie Mittens have hit us with a consistency of quality dishing out their own brand of unrelenting ecstatic free-rock that is truly some of the best out there. This is the sound of collective catharsis; transcendent frenetic rippers that are a conduit for some serious headwound brainmelting. Here are three mystics erecting stoned-architectures with the intention of altering consciousness through euphoric jammers. Guitarist, Aart-Jan Schakenbos leads the ensemble ripping feedback and shrieking high-gain dissonant cosmic blues building upon the rumbling, droning low-end from bassist, Michel van Dam and the free-rhythms of drummer, Leo Fabriek. A kind of spiritual anarchy surfaces through the distorted bedlam illuminating a full spectrum of frequencies which gives their most feverish moments the effect of coma-inducing psychical bliss landing somewhere between head banging and catatonia. These guys take it to edge and then push further out until there is literally no physical place left to go. Intense and just brilliant. The record is a cyclical work without beginning or end and as such has no side A or B. Listen to this record loud as it’s meant to be played. Limited to 300. BTW, Holy Mountain has announced they will be putting out a record by the Julie Mittens in 2008 so keep your eyes and ears open! (9/10) (Todd Brooks) (link) Dusted Magazine (Mar. 1, 2006): Julie Mittens – sounds sweet as lemon meringue pie, doesn’t she? One can only dream for a scenario where a would-be record buyer stumbled across this while bin-surfing for an unknown chanteuse. But, damn Skippy, Miss Mittens is not a lady. Nope. She is Holland’s – if not the UK’s – fiercest, most free-crawling sound unit happening today. Built by guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos, bassist Michel van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek, the trio seem to have been spliced together from the gene pool of Fushitsusha, Skullflower, and Rashied Ali. Seems incapable, but they pull it off and then some. Recorded June 20 2005 is Mittens’ third self-released CD-R since 2002 and while Italy’s Qbico will be outing a picture disc LP soon, this 70-minute behemoth carries more than enough sonic sustenance to satisfy those seeking “proper” documentation. Over six unnamed pieces Schakenbos alternates between jagged, sprawled out swaths of comet-tailed feedback and dissonant, yet sparsely articulate blues notes. While his tone cuts through Fabriek and van Dam’s syncopated rhythm/nonrhythm duality, his axe is not perched in the lead role. All three are prominent, core pieces to the vision, like the fist-pumping free jazz of Last Exit or Poly Breath Percussion Band. What take Julie Mittens even further out is their adaptation of the levitation, bliss qualities of Blue Humans or Dead C. Throughout the set, van Dam’s bass tugs at the ear to give full attention to his weave and bob low-end. On the third piece, he grooves relentlessly, almost in mode of Jimmy Garrison’s intro to “Crescent” from Coltrane’s Live in Japan, without care to the skree bubbling around him. It is an exhilarating center to the outer sheath of shattering feedback and drum rolls. After a near linear path, the fourth piece is Mittens’ blues song. Schakenbos’ expressive tone distinctly echoes paths of Haino/Mazzacane before giving way to screeching spikes and an extended, hell-bet swinging outro from Fabriek. The disc ends with 15 minutes of continually escalating and monstrous light and momentum. With such intensity, it is easy to overcome the reoccurring dodgy sound quality (mainly in van Dam’s bass), though caging Julie Mittens in a studio may damper their unsurpassable surge. Nonetheless, Recorded June 20 2005 is an exhaustive ride which I happily challenge the band to top. (Eric Weddle) (link) Volcanic Tongue (Dec. 15, 2005): The follow-up to this European free/power trio’s skull-trumping debut album, March 5 2003, Recorded June 20 2005 stands as one of the most powerful energy/form re-thinks to come out of the continent since…uh… well, fucking never. Only Caspar Brötzmann’s trio broadcasts come anywhere close to the kind of post-blues mainline of this group but while Brotz dallied with previously-articulated gutbucket strategies the kind of total war turf guzzlers collected here are well beyond any previous attempt at instantaneously structuring rock-informed power. Right from the get-go, with guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos tearing infinitely extended single note screamers from his guitar, the only comparable reference point would be the run of ferociously amped sides that Fushitsusha cut for Tokuma in 1997/98. The playing reconciles the gush of now with some split-second interactive playing that’s as immediately impressive as rock/freedom pilots like the Dream/Aktion Unit while the timing and overall structural heft of the pieces feels genuinely forward-thinking and fully surrendered to the vicissitudes of the moment. You won’t hear a more inspiring rock record this month. Comes in a beautifully printed card slipcase over a jewelcase with full-colour inserts. Highest recommendation. (David Keenan) (link) The Wire 261 (October 2005): Live power trio improvisations from a group of liberated European thinkers piloted by guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos, bassist Michel Van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek. The trio were originally brought together by a mutual appreciation of the polyrhythmic higher key improvisations of the John Coltrane Orchestra circa Olatunji Concert and that works as a fairly accurate benchmark for the degree of energy/sound exchange going on here. Something in the way Schakenbos wrestles explosive single note dirges from an overdriven guitar brings to mind the kind of post-Ayler pyrotechnics of Caspar Brötzmann, while the degree of fuzz and distortion almost matches Nanjo Asahito's Musica Transonic in terms of wall-smashing ferocity. But the music is less about texture and grit and more about live three-way exchange, and the level of interplay is totally exhilarating, matching the kind of speed of thought agility more commonly associated with free jazz with all the meat of the best rock. (David Keenan) (link) Dusted Magazine (Nov. 8, 2005): On April 23, 1967, the John Coltrane Quintet shredded the performance space of Babatunde Olatunji’s Harlem cultural center. The concert was one of the saxophonist’s last stage appearances, but the tapes didn't resurface until 2002 as Impulse’s The Olatunji Concert: The Last Live Recording. The spirit of that concert also resurfaced, on March 5, 2003 in the live – and very electric - performance of a trio of Dutch musicians, the Julie Mittens. Their set is documented on this self-released, limited edition CD-R. Spurred on by their mutual affection of the Olatunji concert, they chase the celebratory, empathetic ecstasy Coltrane tapped. Over four extended improvisations, guitarist Aart-Jan Schakenbos, bassist Michel van Dam and drummer Leo Fabriek walk a harrowing path between amplifier anarchy and balanced interaction, never failing to make the two meet. Schakenbos provides the skyscraping as he warps and mutilates single notes with the centrifugal force of massive feedback. Van Dam either drops terrifying bass bombs that fill the vacuum Schakenbos leaves in his wake, drones ominously, or dialogues. Fabriek, however, harnesses the others' energy, as he resists the urge to flail away, and instead inserts a fill when it increases tension, thumps steadily when a groove is needed, or colors when space beckons. Coltrane might have been the catalyst for the these three, but nearly forty years of extreme music has also contributed elements to their unstable chemistry. Van Dam is one of the founders of the Dutch Wot Nxt collective and one half of the noise provocateurs the Sugar Coated Mind Bombs. Schakenbos and Fabriek, in their duo project Tenuzu No Chiizu, explore the sidelong worlds of Japanese improv. These streams spill over into the Julie Mittens, manifested as shattering decibels, primal rock ritual, a telepathic knack for pinpoint placement, and combustible interaction. The trio, though, never exaggerates any one element, foregrounding different strengths at different times. The first track unfolds at an excruciating pace, the trio pulling at Schakenbos’ granular phrases until they start distending into a cataclysmic howl, the piece culminating in a slow-burn supernova. On the next piece, Fabriek and van Dam grope for a few minutes at the skeleton of a theme and rhythm, but Schakenbos pushes them to more emphatic heights, a move that strains the recording equipment to such a degree that all three merge into a blistering wall of near seamless distortion. The final two pieces both rely on repetition, but with divergent outcomes. For the third piece, Schakenbos builds towering structures on top of an ominous bass-drum ostinato, and tension mushrooms and contracts with each cycle. No such fluctuations, however, for the fifteen-minute finale, during which the group, from the start, lumbers in a locked groove that never subsides and never falters – it only swells towards an unreachable climax. Gaining in intensity from moment to moment and listen to listen, one waits, and hopes, for the Julie Mittens to continue their quest. (Matthew Wuethrich) (link) Volcanic Tongue (Aug. 11, 2005): So we’re at Le Weekend back in May 2005, bumming round the stall and talking Roxy and The Fall with our long time connection-to-the-source Mr Tony Herrington while Alex is pulling shapes behind the bar’s DJ decks when this dude who has been shadowing all the hot fest action over the past few weeks – laid a heavy pro-Haino spiel on us at Newcastle’s Music Lover’s Field Companion a week earlier and generally matched us enthusiasm-for-enthusiasm – surreptitiously slips Alex a CD-R of his own group. Neilson’s game and he immediately slaps it on the CD player and bombards the room. Soon as it kicks in I corner Alex, what the fuck is this? Unreleased Musica Transonic? Caspar Brötzmann? Last Exit? Haino/Ali? It’s fucking Aart-Jan Schakenbos, that’s who, and before I can shake his fist Heather has clambered over the stall and is putting an order in: “We need copies fer the VT drool and we need em now!” So now we got ‘em, a beautiful limited to 100 CD featuring what has to be the most ass-blasting free-rock trio to come out of Europe since Brötzmann’s sick punk/dirge ensemble. Featuring our man Aart-Jan on guitar, Leo Fabriek on drums (Fabriek also plays with Tenuzu No Chiizu) and Michel van Dam on bass, this one scales the fucking peaks with a guitar sound that is pure Haino/Rallizes squeal and a high-energy quotient that matches Coltrane’s Olatunji concert, a major touchstone that apparently first brought the trio together. Can’t recommend this one enough, two seconds was all it took to send the whole VT team into wild orbit. Beautifully packaged too, with shredded obi and hard card sleeve in a jewel case. Keep yr eyes peeled for more action from Mr Aart-Jan; the guy is unstoppable. (David Keenan) (link)