|
- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE
WEEK
- Rhys Chatham "Die Donnergötter" 1987 (USA)
Sonic
Youth is officially kaput (for the time being at least, "never say
never"!) Out of the ashes, Lee Ranaldo put out an excellent solo
album in 2012 (with Steve Shelley on the drums making it 50% Sonic),
and this year Thurston Moore has emerged with a new band Chelsea Light
Moving (I think that's also the name of a light moving company in
Chelsea, get it?) Furthermore, CLM is playing in Madison next
week, so we'll be having a bit of avant guitar rock on the show to
celebrate. This week's classic album is by a contemporary of the
Youth, another downtown New York 80's legend named Rhys Chatham (sounds
like "Reese Chattum"). The common ground is oceanic guitar
skronk, though Chatham's arrangements are instrumentals, inspired
by classical music, and are far more minimalist (I think his most
famous piece "Guitar Trio" has only one chord!) Which is not to
say that his music doesn't rock hard, because it does! Though he
was performing in NYC in the late 1970's (a couple years before SY;
Thurston Moore apparently even played in an early Chatham group),
Chatham's music didn't begin to appear on record until a couple years
after. Die Donnergötter
was his second album, and some of the songs were already 10 years
old by the time it was released. These days Chatham lives in
France, where he leads a 100-member guitar orchestra!
|
