Goodbye 20th Century

Goodbye 20th Century is a double-CD compilation of various Sonic Youth collaborations and reinterpretations, with a cast including Christian Wolff, John Cage, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Reich and Pauline Oliveros and even Yoko Ono.

Avant-Garde guru Jim O'Rourke assumes production duties in nailing down thirteen freeform sprawling epics which push out the boundaries of music. Hence choice cuts such as Christian Wolff's 'Edges' are spooky, skeletal pieces of icy eeriness and sense-jabbing white noise. Sometimes shock tactics are employed, as in the case of Yoko Ono's twelve second scream juxtaposed with long dreamy symphonies. However, a lot of what's an offer is guaranteed to clear any dancefloor, and wreck anybody's head, the best example being Steve Reich's 'Pendulum Music', which is merely the sound of a (ahem) discordant pendulum dragged out over a full six minutes.

As an owner and lover of every single recording produced by Mogwai and Shellac, I think that I more than qualify as a fan of what many of my friends and family consider to be pure, utter art wank. However, even I rolled my eyes in bafflement at some of the 'material' served up here.

While Sonic Youth are to be admired for such an audacious attitude in challenging their listeners, sometimes you wish they would take things just a little more gently.