The two members of Norway’s MOHA!–guitarist Anders Hana and drummer Morten Olsen–have kept busy with a host of projects on the bustling Oslo scene, but they bring a visceral intensity to every one. They’re the foundation for improvisational noise combo Ultralyd, and they’ve backed veteran Norwegian saxist Frode Gjerstad and New York reedist Andrew D’Angelo. On MoHa!’s recently released debut, Raus Aus Stavanger (Rune Grammofon), you can hear the duo’s aesthetic tendencies in their purest form. Hana and Olsen generate some of the lean brutality of power duos like Lightning Bolt and Ruins, but the music isn’t postprog wankery so much as a fiery collision of free improvisation and unhinged noise rock. Olsen is a powerful presence, dropping bomblike splatters and blurring the line between propulsion and ornamentation, while Hana sends the pieces on roller-coaster rides with feedback flip-outs, jagged, detuned string bending, and post-Derek Bailey note tangles, staying in sync with Olsen’s wide-ranging rhythms all the while. This is MoHa!’s Chicago debut. –Peter Margasak
