Search - Lee Ranaldo, William Hooker :: Clouds

Ranaldo and Hooker tried a duet CD some years back on Knitting Factory Works, but the disc was less than a success. Clouds, on the other hand, is an unqualified success. It works in torrents of tense build-ups that blow open into monsoons of guitar squall and drum attacks. Yes, the music shows an attention to finer points than SY's other guitarist, Thurston Moore, often shows, but Ranaldo and Hooker make plentiful, gleeful noise. And the spoken words are done tastefully, wry but meaningful. When O'Rourke and Italian saxophonist Gianni Gebbia are on stage with Hooker/Ranaldo, the impact is even greater, rife with squeals and a hazy keyboard chaos O'Rourke just seems to let fly with complete ease. --Andrew Bartlett