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Japan is the land of free rock power trios - Mainliner, High Rise, and Fushitsusha. The Julie Mittens aren't from Japan (they're Dutch), but maybe they should be. Insanely loud waves of guitar fire. Bursts of falling-down-the-stairs drumming, like Kevin Shea of Storm and Stress. No sound is harsh, but the power and intensity of the sound is so unrelenting. They don't let up. There's no air to breathe. The sound is all around you. The outside world is out of mind, but after a half hour or so (taking up the first two untitled tracks) I'm so fried I can't think straight. Even when they slow down and turn the wall of guitar into waves of almost blues-like somber riffs, the ground has already been burnt down to the black - my mind is numb. As the album enters its last track (again untitled), you see that this whole journey was all preparation. The sinewy trio has saved their most insanely fierce but genius bits for last, assembling into a huge lumbering freak-out, reminding me of "Psycho Buddha" from Acid Mothers Temple that opens up New Geocentric World. Not for the faint of heart but a dizzying and exhausting trip worth taking.

Julie Mittens at Amazon & Insound