Since he and Kim Gordon split, effectively bringing Sonic Youth to an end, Thurston Moore has been living in north London, where he’s been a regular fixture in the city’s improv scene, popping up alongside the likes of Steve Noble, the Thing and Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce. Here he jams with This Heat drummer Charles Hayward, pulling out rough skeins of noise from his guitar as Hayward lays down driving glam-rock rhythms, speeding up into jittery post-punk.
Some of the grooves they lock into for these untitled tracks are strong, like the swaggering second track, or the final one with its blurts of blues coalescing into pretty chimes; there is always second-to-second beauty in Moore’s guitar. But as with so much improv, the sense of adventure and world-building you have when experiencing it live is dulled as soon as the recordings touch wax – this has the feel of a document rather than a record.
