Live

Approfondimenti

The Thing and Thurston Moore's collaborations seem to be a match made in heaven. Their previous meetings have brought together the squawking sax of Mats Gustafsson and the distorted guitar erratically strummed and thrashed by Moore, while bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love complete the lineup, going hell-for-leather in a frenzied freakout. The album Live was recorded at Café OTO, Moore's adopted home in London, while the Thing were on tour in support of their 2013 album Boot! The two tracks, "Blinded by Thought" and "Awakened by You" (both amounting to 30 minutes of music), start with intricate of call-and-response sax and guitar parts before building to a relentless barrage of noise. There is something quite hypnotic about their free style of playing once the initial hit of sound is over; they frantically play as if their lives depended on it. It is exactly as you might come to expect should you already be a fan and have previously delved into the Thing's back catalog or the more experimental side of Thurston Moore's background (see the Sonic Youth Recordings [SYR] series); this is a testing, challenging, yet rewarding listen. The album isn't for everyone and it's not meant to be. However, there is something so satisfying in all this destruction.
© James Pearce /TiVo