baltimore sun · 4 feb 2000

Sonic Youth
=Goodbye 20th Century (SYR 4) =

They may have made their name in the alt-rock underground, but Sonic Youth actually started out in the classical avant garde, performing the clangorous compositions of Glenn Branca and others. "Goodbye 20th Century" is, in that sense, a return to roots, in which the quartet (along with selected guest musicians) performs compositions by John Cage, Steve Reich, Pauline Oliveros, Nicolas Slonimsky and others. It's not rock music by any means, offering none of the music's rhythmic drive or melodic focus. Even so, these abstract soundscapes do share turf with Sonic Youth's own well-tempered dissonances, from the drone-and-squeak of Reich's "Pendulum Music" to detuned clunk of Slonimsky's "Piece Enfantine”.