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The release of a new project linked to Sonic Youth always represents an event for lovers of experimentation and extreme sound. This is the fifth release for Sonic Youth Records (it's also labeled as SYR5) and Kim Gordan here takes a break from bass to once more shoulder the guitar; Dj Olive and DNA's old drummer accompany her on the voyage. And it is a voyage, at the beginning of which the Dantescan expression of infernal memory 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here' springs to mind. Forget the hope of finding any element of 'everyday music' no matter how twisted (as Sonic Youth always are). Forget the hope of being able to apply any normal standard of technical-stylistic judgment to the eleven tracks that make up this work. The only way to make your step less uncertain, the only possibility of 'giving up on giving up' and moving beyond the chaos, is the fascinating, incredibly sensual voice of Kim, which is even more alienated and distant than usual, like some William Gibson character with obscure motives, who happens to be sharing your path by pure freaky chance. And so you enter these strange lands, dominated by minimal, fleeting sounds, with sudden outbursts of sound, strange electrostatic interference and magnetic thunder the only prelude or epilogue. And when in What Do You Want (Kim) your hallucinatory journey companion seems to lose control, you'll feel a shiver runs down you spine... Let's get away from these metaphors, and conclude by saying that this work, mixed by the immaculate Jim O'Rourke, and with Yuka Honda's (Cibomatto) contribution in one piece, is the umpteenth example of the geniality of Sonic Youth's components, of their private way of seeing music as escape, something utterly without rules or compromises and therefore a great opportunity to dive headlong into a fascinating and bewitching sonic anarchy.
MARCELLO BERLICH
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