Thinking Plague
In This Life

If I ask myself how progressive rock has evolved over these decades, I can't find a convincing answer (apart from King Crimson), it's much easier to find nostalgic musicians who play like in those times, as if there were no real lines of development in an evolutionary sequence.

Yet there are many realities that, evading easy categorizations, have in my opinion continued a certain discourse or picked up a particular thread at some point. One of these realities could be the American band Thinking Plague of "In This Life".

One fine day, their leader Mike Johnson found out that Chris Cutler was on tour with Pere Ubu and would be passing through Denver, he didn't miss the chance and gave the Thinking Plague's demo to him who founded and manages one of Mike's favorite labels, "Recommended Records". It was thus that a few weeks later Chris called him to record what would become this "In this life" which was released in 1989.

The music is also from the same year, except for the last two, respectively from '85 and '82. Almost all compositions are by Mike Johnson who also plays all guitars (except for a small contribution by Fred Frith in the initial part of "Organism").

In the gently dark atmospheres, the melancholic voice of Suzanne Lewis soars perfectly at ease, knowing how to move very well between spaces and within its limits.

The guitar chords pleasantly intertwine with piano and synth, the winds are never too showy. Electric and acoustic blend into a sound carpet that flows homogeneously, based on the vigorous rhythm, supported by the skilled and eccentric Bob Drake. Our good technique and refined arrangements never exceed and always remain at the service of melody and emotions in gloomy atmospheres or at other times more spatial ("Moonsong" and "Possessed") or organic ("Organism") where a continuous chaos of percussion tries to give shape to the primordial fluid. The only track in my opinion below par is the track "Malaise".

Unfortunately, this is the only Thinking Plague album I own, so I can't make comparisons with the band's subsequent works. "In this life" is currently out of catalog on the ReR site. I hope you can find it somewhere because it is highly recommended for all fans of avant rock, or prog, or perhaps better of RIO (labels, sigh!). For convenience, I would place them close to Henry Cow/Slappy Happy but far from their moments of intricate improvisations.

Discography:

A "Tk" lp 1984 Cont possessed (endemic music)

"Moonsong" 1987 lp dead man's curve rec.

"In this life" 1989 cd lp ReR Megacorp.

"In extremis" 1998 cd Cuneiform

"Early Plague" cd 2000 Cuneiform (collection of the first two records)

"A history of madness" 2003 cd Cuneiform

P.S. I've thought a lot about the value of the rating in my reviews; I used to think that very few works truly deserved five stars. Then I changed my mind and realized, even by listening to reviewed works, that I have to adopt a different criterion, otherwise, I might pass off as mediocre works that aren't.