releases December 30, 2025

Penguin Guide to Jazz: Crown.

All Music Guide: 5 Stars

"Recorded in May 1968, it’s a total noise Meisterwerk. There is no more exhilarating noise than these choruses, when eight incomparably wayward players temporarily regroup to blast the roof off heaven."
- Biba Kopf, The Wire

"An indisputable milestone in the history of both free jazz and European jazz. The new edition ups the ante by adding a live version of the title track recorded two months earlier at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival, with additional saxophonist Gerd Dudek. There have been loads of manic free jazz records made over the last four decades, but nothing has yet topped Machine Gun."
- Chicago Reader

"A liberating shot for European jazz autonomy, music torn free of the conventions of American jazz. The three reedmen who made up the front line – Brötzmann, Evan Parker, and Willem Breuker – each subsequently proved to be among the most influential and original of stylists. This is primal yawp, straight from the gut, absolutely cathartic and exhilarating."
- Art Lange

"This historic free jazz album is a heavy-impact sonic assault so aggressive it still knocks listeners back on their heels decades later. Machine Gun set a new high-water mark for free jazz and "energy music" that few have approached since. While Brötzmann has played this powerfully on albums since, never again is it with a group of this size playing just as hard with him. The sound of Machine Gun is just as aggressive and battering as its namesake, blowing apart all that's timid, immovable, or proper with an unrepentant and furious finality. A primal thrill."
- All Music Guide

"This one can't be recommended highly enough because its legend has stood the test of time, making it a true classic."
- Thom Jurek

"A classic that is indispensable to any avant-garde jazz fan's collection. There is nothing quite like it, before or since, and it remains one of the most profound documents produced in the European jazz tradition."
- Amazon

Peter Brötzmann: tenor & baritone saxophone
Willem Breuker: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Evan Parker: tenor saxophone
Fred Van Hove: piano
Peter Kowald: double bass
Buschi Niebergall: double bass
Han Bennink: drums
Sven-Åke Johansson: drums

Tracks 1-5 recorded by Günther Zipelius in May 1968, at the Lila Eule in Bremen, Germany. Track 6 recorded March 24, 1968, at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival.

Tracks 1-3 originally released on BRÖ Records in 1968 in a limited edition, produced by Peter Brötzmann, and reissued on FMP in 1972. Later reissued by FMP on CD, with bonus tracks, in 1990. And then again by Atavistic in 2007, with an additional live cut.

Remastered 2025 by Olaf Rupp.


Soloists:
1. Machine Gun: Parker, Van Hove, Breuker, Brötzmann
2: Responsible / For Jan Van De Ven: Brötzmann, Van Hove, Parker, Breuker
3: Music for Han Bennink: Johansson, Bennink, Brötzmann, Breuker, Van Hove