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Moshe · 08.27.2007, 06:37 AM

So which way does the new Thurston record go? Down the shonkily-paved path of his most recent recorded output – the free noise fun house of the likes of Original Silence and Dream Aktion Unit – or in the more conventionally-floored direction of the last Sonic Youth album, Rather Ripped, and of his other solo album from over a decade ago, Psychic Hearts. Skronk scavengers may choose to avert their eyes now- it’s kinda the latter. But, hang on, come back - even if I too was perhaps secretly (well, I didn’t tell my mum) hoping for some solo guitar expedition, I’ve been enjoying Trees Outside The Academy massively.

The root cause of this spurt of enthusiasm is the cross-pollination of some addictively sweet melodies with the unexpected and quite delicious violin parts of Samaru Lubelski (MV/EE). The opening slew of tracks – “Frozen Gtr” (thumbs to p20 of the SY style guide; “yr gtr, never your guitar”, check) and “The Shape Is In A Trance” may be two of the finest straight-up pop songs Thurston has written, and following these with a duet with the honeyed vocals of Christina Carter is chasing down dessert with dessert wine. An interruption to this mood (“Wonderful Witches”, with Gown and John Moloney) irritates with its petulant juvenility, but I’m won back over with the delicate and dreamy “Never Day”, and the building SYisms of the instrumental title track, which features the the even more instantly recognisable by sound than by sight J Mascis – which is saying something - cutting in with some coruscating gtr.
The album closes with Thurston demonstrating his long-standing fascination with the possibilities of recorded sound…actually it does no such thing, it finishes with a 30 year old recording of him dicking about of with scissors and disinfectant. It does however throw into sharp relief the fact that he has just made his maturest-sounding record. It may also be one of his very best.
Track samples are from the Ecstatic Peace site, which also bandies about a release date of September 18th.

http://mapsadaisical.wordpress.com/2...cstatic-peace/

08.27.2007, 06:37 AM	#57
Moshe Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,862	So which way does the new Thurston record go? Down the shonkily-paved path of his most recent recorded output – the free noise fun house of the likes of Original Silence and Dream Aktion Unit – or in the more conventionally-floored direction of the last Sonic Youth album, Rather Ripped, and of his other solo album from over a decade ago, Psychic Hearts. Skronk scavengers may choose to avert their eyes now- it’s kinda the latter. But, hang on, come back - even if I too was perhaps secretly (well, I didn’t tell my mum) hoping for some solo guitar expedition, I’ve been enjoying Trees Outside The Academy massively. The root cause of this spurt of enthusiasm is the cross-pollination of some addictively sweet melodies with the unexpected and quite delicious violin parts of Samaru Lubelski (MV/EE). The opening slew of tracks – “Frozen Gtr” (thumbs to p20 of the SY style guide; “yr gtr, never your guitar”, check) and “The Shape Is In A Trance” may be two of the finest straight-up pop songs Thurston has written, and following these with a duet with the honeyed vocals of Christina Carter is chasing down dessert with dessert wine. An interruption to this mood (“Wonderful Witches”, with Gown and John Moloney) irritates with its petulant juvenility, but I’m won back over with the delicate and dreamy “Never Day”, and the building SYisms of the instrumental title track, which features the the even more instantly recognisable by sound than by sight J Mascis – which is saying something - cutting in with some coruscating gtr. The album closes with Thurston demonstrating his long-standing fascination with the possibilities of recorded sound…actually it does no such thing, it finishes with a 30 year old recording of him dicking about of with scissors and disinfectant. It does however throw into sharp relief the fact that he has just made his maturest-sounding record. It may also be one of his very best. Track samples are from the Ecstatic Peace site, which also bandies about a release date of September 18th. http://mapsadaisical.wordpress.com/2...cstatic-peace/
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