Bill Nace - Both (2020)

Killer, beautifully scorched noise guitar and amp séances for the connoisseurs right here from improv catalyst Bill Nace (Body/Head) at his most crudely tactile and feverishly slow-burning. Highly recommended if you're into Wolf Eyes, Dilloway, Nate Young, Sonic Youth.

It’s got some real spirit to this one, not to mention the sweat, hair, muscle and bones that Nace feels out with his guitar and amp, coaxing phantasmic noise chorales and just intonation drones alongside Nate Young-esque trip-metal excursions and washed out works redolent of Two Daughters and The Caretaker at his most frayed, beyond, but swapping out the eldritch for a lysergic, moon-drunk shimmer of backwater Americana.

“Free guitar for the new age: improv with intention, construction and destruction, all with the grain and air of performance captured and telescoped in a sonic particle collider. Makes sense, and not just because of the chaotic times. With Both, terminal collaborator Bill Nace (Body/Head, Thurston Moore) has found a stimulating, chiaroscuro-stubbled path back to the electric guitar's anarchic promise, drawn through eight colorful pieces that are equal parts sound, noise and music.”