Thurston Moore/Wally Shoup/Toshi Makihara
Hurricane Floyd
Sublingual
On August 19th, 1999, there were two storms at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church. One, called Hurricane Floyd on the outside, and one inside, a vivid sound clash inside. Guitarist Thurston Moore, famous from Sonic Youth, infamous for a godawful amount of freenoise guitar skronk, is coupled with Wally Shoup, a reedist who’s kept a low profile, and Toshi Makihara, a percussionist who’s kept one even lower. Moore sometimes fumbles in his own lovingly idiosyncratic way, but Shoup is always right there along with him. Moore will sometime take off on a noisy, distorted tangent, and all of a sudden, Shoup will charge right at him with hummingbird quick succession of notes. Makihara skitters and flirts, his touch is lightning deft but not heavy. Moore uses the range of possibilities of his guitar, from bright and melodic to discordant and dirty. Three of the four tracks are from a trio session, and one is a solo by Moore. His picking is surprisingly tight; he weaves phrases around a coherent melodic theme and really explores its possibilities. During some the quiet parts, you can hear the storm outside, and it adds an interesting ambiance to the proceedings.
Sublingual Recordings, P.O. Box 391516, Cambridge, MA 02139; http://www.sublingual.com
