Sonic Youth

Another great installment in Sonic Youth's SYR series, this one features two engrossing, lengthy pieces : 'J'Accuse Ted Hughes' and 'Agnes B Musique'. The former was recorded at All Tomorrow's Parties 2001, when the band were premiering material from their NYC Ghosts & Flowers album, and takes the form of a ragged twenty-two minute noise jam featuring free association lyrics by Kim Gordon ("I sent my poem to Good Housekeeping. They paid me ten dollars" she imparts). Meanwhile, the more composed, studio based experiments of 'Agnes B Musique' were originally intended as a soundtrack work as part of a collaboration with the French designer of the title. Sadly, the project never saw completion, instead surfacing some five years later as this incredible eighteen minute B-side, featuring the production and performance of then-bandmember Jim O'Rourke, who helps sculpt the piece into something more dynamic and more fully formed than the anything-goes droner it might have otherwise been. Awesome stuff - Highly recommended.