[scott v]

Originally Posted by sonicl

You missed this one, Moshe...

Original Silence - The first original silence
Rory Carroll takes a listen to The Original Silence and finds it tricky to find worth in an hour's worth of self indulgent 'noise'...
Released 30th April 07 on Smalltown Superjazz

Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore has teamed up with members of The Ex and The Thing to release an album that seeks to blend all their influences into one sound. Unfortunately, the result of this little experiment is a cacophony of discordant, self indulgent nonsense punctuated by the occasional change in tempo and squeal of a slide saxophone.

There are two tracks on this album, one lasting 15 minutes and the other lasting around 46 minutes. That’s 2 tracks amounting to somewhere near a full hour of what may only be described as ‘noise.’

This isn’t noise in the same way that say, one of Slayer’s songs is noise. This album is what would happen if a band recorded themselves tuning up for an hour… in different rooms… with no knowledge of what the other was doing…

Some 20 minutes into In the name of the law – the album’s 46 minute second track – the listener is allowed a brief respite. The wall of noise stops, giving you enough time to realise that this is what despair would sound like if it was put to music. However, after a solid 10 minutes of someone scraping a pick up and down the fretboard it becomes clear that this is no respite – it’s actually the bands 10 minute version of a middle 8. Tempers fray, the red mist descends and you begin to wonder; what exactly is this band trying to achieve?

The problem with this album is that by bragging that ‘this is everything we love, all mixed together,’ it seems that Moore et al. forgot to separate all their different influences and structure them into some kind of song. Sure, there’s the free-jazz element to this album, but even jazz has its basic structures.

If this album were Frankenstein’s monster, you’d happily hand the disgruntled villagers all the pitchforks and torches they required, then sit back with a beer and watch as the windmill burned before your eyes.

Original Silence sounds so bad that listening to 60 minutes of actual silence would have been much more preferable.


Artrocker rating: 1

artrocker.com


I don't think he liked it.

that is a piece of shit review written by an amatuer that probably should just write for folks like Pitchfork. this statement is just stupid: "...seek to blend all their influences into one sound..." that is a broad statement to make and a false interpretation of what exists within improv groups that consist of members of other well known groups whether it be "free jazz" or "rock" and actually this is not really as noisey as alot of things i've heard at all, i mean what the fuck is a slide saxophone??? this idiot really has no clue. and what is with the comparison to Slayer? Slayer isn't noise??? wow to believe that this was written as a legitmate review on anything other than someone's personal blog is a shame.