Chelsea Light Moving - Chelsea Light Moving
- Written by Ian Schultz
Chelsea Light Moving is the new band from the ageless proprietor of Sonic Youth, Thurston Moore. Thurston did a solo album towards the demise of Sonic Youth called Demolished Thoughts, which was very much inspired by Leeds folk-jazzer Michael Chapman, it was an enjoyable album - if a little too mellow.
Moore is up to his old tricks again, however, and Chelsea Light Moving is self proclaimed 'Burroughs Rock'; which is, according to their label's Metablog, the "sound of Wild Boys looking to jack hypos of core passion into their veins. Boy on boy. Girl on girl. Start there. It’s not even music – it’s an amphetamine sonnet for the on-the-loose lovers of the world". Thurston, since he met Uncle Billy Burroughs in his self-imposed retirement in Lawrence, Kansas from the smack fuelled streets of Bowery in New York City, was intent on making some Burroughs Rock. The name comes from Removal Company run by avant-garde composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, which gives Thurston his much-desired New York hipster creditability (like he didn't have that already after 30 years of sonic business).
The record unsurprisingly isn't too dissimilar from Sonic Youth’s familiar sound, and it's certainly better than a lot of Post-Goo material. It’s not like some free jazz thing, which Thurston has done before. It’s just a bunch of noisy post-punk stuff, and it's simple but works. It does have some embarrassing lyrics: look no more than ‘Groovy & Linda’. The album ends with a very cool rendition of The Germs’ ‘Communist Eyes’, which shows Thurston’s deep love for American hardcore and it’s a good version to boot.
The best track is the previously released Burroughs rocker predictably titled ‘Burroughs’ which is a total noise-pop fest. ‘Sleeping Where I Fall’ is one of the stand-out tracks and could easily fit comfortable alongside material heard on Goo, along with the hardcore-y 'Lip'. The aforementioned ‘Groovy & Linda’ and pretentious ‘Mohawk’ brings the album down but overall it’s nice to hear new stuff where Thurston is rocking out, either way; it’s better than the overly acclaimed Lee Ranaldo's dad rock output.
Chealsea Light Moving is out now and available from amazon