Dunia by Thurston Moore & Umut Çağlar

Dunia was recorded in Istanbul, Turkey during the same trip that teamed Thurston Moore with Konstrukt for a concert. The duo recording was done quietly in a studio as an aside on the very same trip. There is little here that will come as a true surprise to those familiar with Moore or Caglar/Konstrukt. The most exciting thing about Dunia is that this fresh duo pairing finds Moore in absolute prime form alongside his newfound foil in Caglar. Caglar, who is known for being a multi-instrumentalist more than a guitarist, pushes and prods Moore into unexpected directions (including the absolutely beautiful first half of "Kensaku") and not to be outdone, Caglar holds his own against Moore on the all out assault of the first half of "The Red Sun." This isn't a jazz record, this isn't a noise record, this isn't even a guitar record, this is an LP full of intensely challenging and rewarding music. At times the pair sounds more akin to electronic music with sustained tones and piercing highs. Beautifully recorded and beautifully mastered by Alan Jones at Laminal Audio. Hopefully this is the first many documents of wonderful pairing of Moore & Caglar.

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With a runtime of just over half an hour, ‘Dunia’ may seem slight. But it packs a helluva punch, the pair setting up a one-two of extended bucolic rattle and scrape that dangles ambient charm in front of our pretty little noses, before unleashing a flaming torrent of noise like some immense sonic fat burger barfed up by a drunk and malignant behemoth that smothers everything in its impact zone.

Opening cut ‘Kensaku’ has the feel of an ambient cabbage fest at first, all plasticky chirrups and ruminative low end thrum. Irregular drizzles of tinfoil screech are harbingers of what’s to come, their chorus of fuzzy rattles and shakes evoking a drowsy toddler’s music class. Atonality gradually maneuvers prettiness into a corner as the duo rouse themselves into flurries of gluey syncopation.

Finally, the espressos kick in, the pair combining for a double guitar fuzz wave, one scurrying up and down the neck in a tasty demo of alt-rock shredding 101 while the other takes care of business with an amorphous white noise cyclone.

‘The Red Sun’ has none of its counterpart’s delicate gradations. It’s fabulously ugly and unpleasant from the off, as Moore and Caglar churn out as much noxious slurry as is humanly possible from their instruments. A backdrop of filthily saturated blasts occasionally recalls Stephen O’Malley’s metallic dirges, although here eternal sustain is benched in favour of rackety, uneven toxicity. Volleys of string abuse are the war cries of murderous, pissed-off kittens. The overall effect is like being dragged backwards through a huge, stagnant pond. Fortunately, a final coda provides comfort of a sort, its brief zero-gravity skank offering a path out of the carnage.

An inspired meeting of minds, ‘Dunia’ will appeal to acolytes of the free-form wig-out far and wide. Followers of Moore’s more well-known group and Konstrukt-watchers alike may cleave to the subtle dissonances of its first side, but the tarry euphoria that follows also yields fuzzy delights, with an end-result that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Tracklist

1.	Kensaku	16:12

2.	The Red Sun	14:50

3.	Echo (Outro)	1:39

Credits

released January 1, 2017

Electric Guitar – Thurston Moore, Umut Çağlar
Mastered By – Alan Jones*
Mixed By – Umut Çağlar
Photography By – Eylem Çağlar
Recorded By – Can Aykal, Sinan Sakızlı
Releases October 27, 2017
Recorded at Hayyam Studyolari by Sinan Sakizli & Can Aykal.
(Istanbul, Turkey - June 6th, 2016)
Mastered by Alan Jones at Laminal Audio (Tracyton, WA, USA).

| released originally as LP through Astral Spirits in 2017
| www.astralspiritsrecords.com

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