Apart from a few brief moments of quiet during 'Sanity'... this stuff just doesn't quit, with Brötzmann's consistently abrasive, high-pitched wailing leading the charge and the other two members stirring up a pretty good ruckus themselves...

It may compel some to simply turn off the stereo, but the fact that this music is likely to provoke such intense reactions (pro or con) more than 35 years after its release is remarkable on its own.

The huge, screaming sound he makes is among the most exhilarating things in the music... the only precedents for his early work are to be found in the contemporary records of Albert Ayler, although Brötzmann arrived at his methods independently of the American.

His first trio record is of a similar cast to, say, Ayler's Spiritual Unity — a raw, ferocious three-way assault, and... it underlines how far Brötzmann had already come with his ideas and execution.

"[7] In a 2002 review of the Atavistic reissue for All About Jazz, Derek Taylor commented: "Revisiting these sounds now aged over three decades (but every bit as relevant) public rancor and disdain may seem understandable given the canonical forces that still guide some strains of improvised music, but hardly deserved."