There have been many faces of Portland's Jackie-O Motherfucker. The free-rock collective cycled through a couple dozen members and released roughly as many records in their decade-long existence. But one thing has remained true: If you turn your attention away from Jackie-O Motherfucker, when you return they're guaranteed to be in a totally different place. Jackie-O's ability to both gradually grow a song and to drastically turn it on its head is a primary element of this volatile band.

Take, for instance, "Amazing Grace" from the recent ATP Recordings reissue of Fig. 5. The song sprawls out into a 10-minute-long epic that journeys from a pastoral cobbling of fiddle and drum into a solemn, if somewhat disjointed, rendition of the well-known hymn. And in a sense, the spirit of Jackie-O Motherfucker's music is an interest in the idea of American psychedelia. While their music can veer off into a rambling territory akin to the better moments of abstract rockers like Can or Faust, it's the presence of a more bombastic rock approach that unifies the whole.

In fact, what sets Jackie-O apart from the latest crop of bands exploring the freer end of rock's fringe is how deeply human their music is. This quality might manifest itself in the form of vocal yelps, wordless exhortations, and occasionally even a verse-chorus-verse structure, but they're always there to draw you in. Similar travelers create a hazier, more mysterious type of music sheathed in alien beauty, but they lack the warm familiarity of vocal elements that Jackie-O are willing to explore.

Jackie-O possess a demonstrated ability to lock into a rhythm and follow it to truly ecstatic heights. As such, there's a compelling aspect of the band that can only be conveyed in a live setting. The experience seems so much more present and dangerous than the Jackie-O Motherfucker recordings to date, though equally compelling. To see the band live is to lose yourself in a whorl of sound with only Jackie-O Motherfucker left to show you the clear way out.

editor@thestranger.com