SYR4: Goodbye 20th century piece of genius or utter crap?
 

Okay I seem to be the only person (apart from pitchfork...less said the better!) that likes this album. Personnally if it wasn't for this record I would have not gotten into John Cage and Steve Reich. So I own this record a lot. What other band in the world would have the guts to do something like SYR4?

very underrated in my opinon
so you´re not the only one who likes it

and there are more people on this board who enjoy it
there was a thread on the old board about SYR 4 where most of members talked very good about it

very impressive work..
i got it in about a month of its release, and i have been enjoying it ever since..

very personal experience, profoundly layered and detailed..
SYR4 is probably one polar end to the spectrum that is my musical taste...

I've yet to hear any of the SYR albums *bows head in shame*

Really didn't like it, though I got to listen to some Steve Reich (wich I appreciate).
The Pauline Oliveros track worked for me.
The James Tenney didn't get me on CD but was really fine when they played it live in Paris.

"Goodbye 20th Century, Goodbye Tallent" -Thurston Moore quoting NME, from that ATP festival documentary on Channel 4.

<500 Posts YAY

it is a great album and great tribute to some of the 20th centuries great american composers that went out on a limb

I don't know if it's genius or crap. I just know I freaking love it.

It bothers my teenaged son, though. Even when I listen to it on headphones, he complains. Especially during that mike-swinging cut--says it drives him nuts.

It's an interesting listen. It's not a record that you can just pop in yr cd player and just hang out to. It's more of a think-piece. Something artistic that needs to be understood. You can't hear the music, you have to listen to it.

i say it's genius

i would say it's the most experimental thing they've done... some of it has a weird, broody, menacing atmosphere... some of it is quite light and sparse... it is quite whimsical and spontaneous... i got it when it came out, i would have been 15 years old... i wouldn't say i was hugely into it right away but i sort of understood it and was intrigued by it... it seemed so esoteric and fascinating to me...

All in all I think it's pretty damn good. It's probably my least favorite SYR if I had to pick....Having Never Written a Note for Percussion is the shit. A really interesting project.

It's a real "challange to the ears" kinda album. once every few months i put it on and trying to find its beautyness.. i think it was a week ago when i heard it the last time.. the first track sounds way experiemental at first glance, but to tell you the truth.. it's kind of a dull number.
so sy4 is sonic youth's most john cage ambitionism-like record to date but i'm not a big fan of it.

I like it although I listen to the debut live 4/1/99 Bowery Ballroom performance more. Gent is okay.

I'm not 100% keen on the track selection, but it'd very good nonetheless.

This is a more difficult album for 'mainstream SYers' (to coin a phrase) to appreciate because it leaves behind the rock sensibilities we associate with SY and enters the seemingly unbound realm of modern classical music.

To appreciate this album in context, you must recognise that SY are merely performers, or interpreters, of other people's music on this album. 'Mainstream SYers' are used to the band's own compositions, with the occasional rocking cover thrown in, which ultimately belong in the rock or punk field, even though they inhabit the little area way out beyond the left field of the outer edges of that field. The performances on SYR4 are classical, with different rules or ideas to be explored or broken.

There's a lot going on in SYR4. All the artist involved are considered to be some sort of genius in their own right, each piece of music relevant for different reasons.

Now, just because most of the artists are considered to be geniuses or, well, artists, does not mean you have to like the recording.

If you don't like it, you don't like it, and just cos all the pieces are written by well-regarded geniuses or artists or whatever, and even though it's performed by our beloved SY, it's still a difficult album.


cbeattie

I really like it, and also found out about cage through its credits. I think it would be much better though to see it live.

I really liked it at the time, and I wasn't that aware of some of the names on three...

It's not genius though. It's a brilliant, outstanding gesture, and something that utterly solidifies their connection to the contemporary stuff, and as far as taking their fans to new places, there's not a band of their stature, ever, who have made such a brilliant move.

However, relative to a more 'tutored' group doing a lot of the things, I don't think it's that great. There are better, far, far better recordings of the pieces by Cage, Tenney and Wolff. Especially the Cage pieces, they just do not by any means have the subtlety to pull off this kind of stuff.

Nonetheless, a wonderful idea and very well delivered considering they're an untutored rock band (albeit one of more the errant of rock bands in operation today).

Rather Ripped it ain't. I like a lot of it, especially the Steve Reich one, as it brought my attention to his stuff, but I don't think i've listened to the entire two disc set more than twice. The shorter SYRs are a bit more digestable.

It's my favorite SYR, so I say genius.