Customer Reviews

Syr 5

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not sure why this record has elicited so much confusion and mixed critical response: fans of Sonic Youth, who are surely aware of Thurston Moore and company's longstanding interest in avant garde jazz and experimental music, shouldn't be all that surprised by this record. That said, a rock record this isn't. However, as the cover art (with its Japanese characters) tends to imply, anyone who might be attracted to Japanese noise artists, as well as to experimental or improvisational music that treads a fascinating line between ambient and industrial (with dream-like vocals from the perpetually cool Kim Gordon) will find much to appreciate in this album's intricate and atmospheric improvisations. Like great free jazz, it isn't necessarily background music, but (unlike some others have commented) I find much of this album quite beautiful: for me, it was love at first listen. (To those who have bought and enjoyed this album: you might also enjoy the CD by Hoahio, on the Tzadik label, on which three Japanese women experiment with everything from pop songs to Japanese folk to pure sound sculpture and improvised noise, with similarly fascinating results.)

After, one and a half listens (not a lot for this type of music, but i'm fast to get it often). A nice following to the "a bit too long and uneven, but still excellent" SYR 4.

This time, the music is more ambient, post-electronica (well kind-of) like, only a few noisy ones. I wont say anything else about the style, the title of this review explain how dumb it is to classify this music ; it's sound pushing experimentations, not music to some ears. The whole thing is really dense, maybe more than SYR 4 at his most freak out! Not a single weak moment too. Kim Gordon innocent, atonal voice work perfectly over the non-structured textures behind (modified percussions, minimal simple guitar riffs, noises of all sorts).

Also, Jim O'Rourke is back on the mix table, i never liked his music, but he is a terrific sound mixer! The whole thing never sound distant, cold, but always warm, near (like the musicians are in front of you)! A great quality for this type of music/noise!

So, a really active non-linear musical trip that i liked really much! Not for all ears of course...

The muse behind husband and bandmate Thurston Moore's love of droney, tangent filled guitar lines, Kim Gordon shows her influences here. The fifth in their series of minimal, music concrete-inspired releases, this is a collaboration that collides, twists, and smashes each of its parts. DJ Olive on the turntables mixes the inklings of crackly melodies and slight orchestral washes, while Ikue Mori deals with the scrapes, the swishes, and the organic bleating of beats. Gordon takes care of the affected, alternatively-tuned guitar strumming, and breathy vocal snippets.

Each song varies in its usage of these three talents; the album is full of varying degrees of drone (thanks to DJ Olive's wax tracks), paired with odd sounds and irregular rhythms and blasts (thanks to drummer Ikue Mori's avant guard/no wave-ness), and out of tune vocals singing along with muted, chunky Sonic Youth-like guitar lines. The album screeches, wafts, and dissonantly bleaches out any familiar melodies. Highlights include Cibo Matto's Yuka Honda with "Take It To the Hit," and the surprise reggae sample on "Take Me Back." In "We Are The Princesses", Kim Gordon offers an interesting set of vocals and lyrics, repeating over and over "we are the princesses" and then "donald duck will follow her! kill! kill minnie! kill minnie!" over and over, an example of how interesting and diverse this cd can be, definately a great album to own.

The talented female Sonic Youth artist Kim Gordon And Ikue Mori (former member of DNA:taiko drums) and DJ Olive combine together dissonance, with a unique experimental atmospheric approach using electronics, distorted guitar, harmonics, to make ambient sounds,....It might take a few listens, cause it could get chaotic.....Kim expresses herself with her randomness and kind of a beat poetry style....If you like Mars, DNA, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks it should definately be a part of the experimental archive, cause this really shines through the SYR albums..

Sonic Youth and Co. do this kind of experimental/borderless noise-music exceedingly well, and this is very good for its kind, atmospheric and even tasteful, like jazz in the sense that it's more about texture and "sounds" than anything else. Kim Gordon's vocals give this a familiar feeling, and at times the mechanical beatbox rhythms recall the Youth's earlier "Ciccone Youth" side-project (a personal fave). My only regret is that it's almost too subdued: I was wishing there were a few more fun, let-'er-rip numbers like "We are the Princesses" ("Kill! Kill Minnie!"). Still, "Lemonade" and "Take Me Back" are nice little demented late-night blues. All in all, a sweet taste of How They Do It in New York.

And I think the SYR series is a lot better than the boring schtuff SY has been foisting on us as major releases lately. This does, in fact, come together quite nicely in quite a few places--please try listening to "International Spy" once more, Mr Improv Expert Who Apparently Thinks That John Zorn And Steve Reich Qualify As Improv...well, actually, this often coalesces so well ("Stuck on Gum" is another one) that it doesn't sound entirely improvised. It's always interesting thanks to the soundscapes concocted by the super-talented Mori and Olive. In fact, Mori's own discs are more challenging, anti-melodic listens than this. If you like Matmos, Markus Popp, Christian Fennesz, and densely-layered abstract collaging of their ilk, you'll like SYR 5...but whatever you do, don't expect Murray Street: this may not be as challenging as Coleman or Coltrane, but it you will need to hear it a few times to grab onto it.

Sonic Youth need to be exploring this kind of territory in their major releases and continue the type of probing artistic statements they used to make before they met Butch Vig. Oh well...at least they do it in semi-private. Thanks for that, anyway.

I went to the shop to pick this up after it had been delayed a week & had to decide between the cd or the more expensive vinyl & chose the latter because it just looked better. When I took it home it was a double 45rpm 12"s which was interesting, longer than 1 album but not quite a real double. It opens w/ Olive's Horn, a jazzy/dubby instrumental, certainly sounding different to typical SY sounds. International Spy could maybe be a hit if it wasn't on a 'side-project' record which only attracts the obsessive fans like myself, Kim sings "I spy into yr ear" over hip beats. There's a song What Do You Want? where she breathes her own name over familiar chords & strangely enough it works quite well indeed. We Are The Princesses is not a Free Kitten type pop stomper but more noise jammy & tracks like Mushroom something & Paperbag/Orange Laptop are extended jammy explorations in sound. After the horror/boredom that was Goodbye 20th Century the SYR series has redeemed its good name w/ this fairly enjoyable & funky set, which just happens to be Kim's 1st solo album except that it's as a trio, being unfamilar w/ DNA, I can just say Ikue Mori is a damn fine drummer & also as my 1st exposure to DJ Olive I was quite impressed, coming from the same school as the excellent DJ Spooky tha' Subliminal kid [who has collaborated w/ Kitten & also Thurston]. I recommend this album to fans of Sonic youth, free jazz & [intelligent varieties of] hip-hop.

In a world where commercialized so called "alternative" rock has sadly taken the minds of so many people hostage, a disc like this is one of the most refreshing things you can stumble on. Kim Gordon is THE princess of serious rock connoiseurs everywhere. If you haven't figured this out yet, her newest release with DJ Olive and Ikue Mori will either convince you now or you'll just never understand.

This release is absolutely befitting to the SYR series that Sonic Youth have been trickling out for a few years now. Don't be fooled by the prefix "DJ" or the fact that this is the first in the SYR series to NOT feature the whole Sonic Youth band. This is not an excursion into beats and rhymes. Kim takes the reins here with a little help from her friends and the results are staggering.

The sultry, smooth squander of Kim's voice darts and dodges around such a varied array of noise and clatter that you won't be able to zone and trip to your usual space. The sound never jolts you back into consciousness, but keeps you just above the dream state so you can skim the pockets of sound without missing anything.

Kim Gordon has shown, through her work with sideline assemblage Free Kitten and other associations, that she knows how to traverse fields of music and make them her own. Through her travels she acts as a snowball always gathering and growing. This release is a step up that endless ladder of musical growth. You can't go wrong here.

first off, let's give credit where due: kim g is one of the boldest and most courageous women in rock music today. while her artistic decisions do not determine whether 1 or 5 million units will be shifted, she is a high profile rockgrrrl that deftly experiments and consistently redefines the outer bounds of what can be expected from her as an artist by her audience.

but this alone is not enough to ensure she stays off the hook. this is some of the ugliest, most brutal, unlistenable music that has ever been created by the sy conglomerate. her voice is hard, angular, and slashes through the dissonance as if it was just another wildly out-of-tune guitar. the lyrics are random and vague and race from her lips in fits and starts like a stuttering epileptic.

but, we are presented a truer vision of kim gordon, the artist, now that she took a night out without the boys. the facets that she demonstrates are impenetrable: this album represents how freud would tell a fairytale, stating evidence from the id as opposed to a true storyline.

while this paints an ever more fascinating portrait of kim gordon it is also very hard to digest in any setting. some passages seem entirely indefensibly and tinker just on the edge of self-parody. she is giving ammunition to her critics but, by straddling that line, she is staying true to herself and following that own strange muse locked in her head.

wouldn't give this five stars. Come on people! This is a terrible record. nothing gels together. kim spouts off nonesense that isn't even good nonsense. or whatever.