The Only Way To Go Is Straight Through begins like a train grinding to a sparks-throwing stop — except it never stops. It just keeps throwing sparks, keeps getting louder, and brighter, and closer. Then everything does finally come to a sudden halt, and it’s somehow even spookier and more involving than before, like that heart-pounding moment of silence after a car crash.
Such are the avant/ambient noise wonders of this special two-song, all-improv Record Store Day LP release, which pairs Sonic Youth co-founder and No Wave guitar guru Thurston Moore with the blues-bending mad genius Loren Connors.
Compiled from two live dates, The Only Way To Go Is Straight Through is only seeing a 3,000-copy, one-time-only vinyl run for April 20, and Northern Spy Records tells us it will not be issued ever again in any other format.
The first side, featured in attached video, is from a July 14, 2012 date at the Stone, John Zorn’s legendary Manhattan spot, as part of the Spy Music Festival. Side 2, which at its midpoint sounds like a storm of feedback run through a tornado, was taken from a subsequent live date as the headliner for a CMJ showcase sponsored by Northern Spy on October 17 at Brooklyn’s Public Assembly.
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