Released: February 2021 Label: Independent
Here at Bedroom Frequencies we acknowledge that what attunes the bedroom for one, may cause hideous discourse for another. With that in mind, I personally was thrilled to discover Thurston Moore had released an instrumental project, as the frequencies of my own youth were almost entirely dictated by the music of this man and those that inspired him.
We are far now from the pioneers of avant garde guitar, the form itself has always been greatly mis-understood by audiences as it is almost impossible for some to comprehend the understanding of natural harmony necessary to create harmonious dissonance. For those that really never understood the depths of Thurston Moore’s noise education, you probably never will, but if you want to give yourself one last chance then take a listen to 'screen time.'
These tracks are the soundtrack to an imagined film noir, each an accompaniment to a different scene. We know we will experience dissonance because this is Thurston Moore, but there is a wonderful, therapeutic stillness to ‘screen time’ and for me the project is at many points acknowledging traditional Arabic music in a very beautiful way. It has all the purity of the end of ‘Kool thing’ or the intro to ‘Theresa’s Sound World’ but with less need to ultimately crescendo and with ingeniously inoffensive yet confrontational harmony throughout. That said we are of-course far from the days of Sonic Youth, but I have always been fascinated by the genuine beauty of those two particular moments.
We are truly witnessing a high point in Thurston’s playing. We know that he can create atmospheres like no-one else, and in 'screen time' his mortified shards dance with unresolved mysteriousness - not unsettling to me personally but I have listened to a lot of Sonic Youth. I remember trying to use ‘Sex is Confusion’ to ease my repressed gayness and as a soundtrack it certainly did describe the feeling, namely horror.
To conclude, ‘screen time’ is a work of bliss and reality existing simultaneously and resolving each other. It’s almost folk without being at-all cliche, ecstatic peace at it’s finest.