Pinkunoizu: Hits Of Sunshine

Hailing from Denmark, Pinkunoizu have an experimental bent which is difficult to place.

Recent EP 'PEEP' was three tracks of pure psychedelia, but the mind expanding dimensions of their music aren't some retro kick. Pinkunoizu take simple ideas and pile them up, using repetition to bring force the strangeness inherent in some of the building blocks of pop music.

Returning for a one off show in London on November 28th, ClashMusic got chatting to Pinkunoizu. Massive Sonic Youth fans, the Danes had been continuously playing the new compilation 'Hits Are For Squares'.

An introduction of sorts to the legendary New York collective, Pinkunoizu offered to make up an alternative playlist - featuring cuts which casual fans might have overlooked.

Who are we to refuse? Read on...

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1. Diamond Sea - Washing Machine
Diamond Sea is one of my all time favourite recordings. Not just by Sonic Youth, but from all the music I have ever heard this stands out as a really special track. The horrifically chilly melody has a strange upheaval attached to it that seems to hold some sort of deeper secret - and yet it is so simple and straight forward. The first thing that caught my attention when I first heard it as a youngster was Lee Renaldos phaser pedal that mumbles like a human being underneath the actual song-part of the track. That sound is instant bliss for me. But the most intense thing about this piece is the band's otherworldly way of playing together. The long jam parts comprise strangely composed plateaus and pure improvisation that are rare to find in modern “rock”-music. In my opinion this is the best Sonic Youth has done so far.

2. Hits of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg) - A Thousand Leaves
A Thousand Leaves holds some very elegant and refined tracks. I've listened a lot of times to Hits of Sunshine. It's mystical poetry is an ode to Allen Ginsberg's more surreal beat-poems, and the sufi inspiration from Lee Renaldo's stay in Morocco with the Master Musicians Of Jajouka runs like an undercurrent through the almost spiritual jams. Steve Shelley's drumming is priceless and makes me think of Neu! Shelley actually played the drums on the recent "reunion" tour of Neu! And the match is spot on.

3. Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth - SYR8
This is a live recording from Sonic Youth's concert on the Danish Roskilde Festival in 2005. Released on SYR (the bands own label) this is the 8th record in the SYR series. I heard this concert and it totally blew my mind. With them they had Mats Gustafsson (saxophone), Merzbow (laptop) and Jim O'Rourke, who was with Sonic Youth in this period. They entered the stage one person at a time and left it one by one, until only Merzbow was left feeding back what the others had played in a highly exuberant manner. The amount of white noise was so immense, that it leveled out my normal hearing, and from within that noisy ocean strange elements popped out just clearly and beautifully. This is one hour of unique music indeed.

4. I Love You Golden Blue - Sonic Nurse
In my opinion Sonic Nurse is the ultimate hit record of Sonic Youth. Every track is so nicely composed, and the production is more crisp and in-your-face than a lot of the other records. This song is just darn graceful, and Kim Gordon sings like some sort of fallen angel from the hinterlands. The lyrics seem to capture a universal feeling of loss, and for me Kim Gordon enacts the gothic world of Emily Brontë with this song.

5. Invito Al ?ielo - SYR3 (With Jim O'Rourke)
Wrapped in Esperanto this 3rd SYR release is a wonderful entrance of Jim O'Rourke into the realm of Sonic Youth. I hold Jim O'Rourke dearly, and admire his natural way of shifting between hardcore avant garde to exotica and rather corny pop-rock music. He has a certain way of turning everything he touches into gold. This release is mostly concentrated on the textural and ambient side of the band, but it also embodies some of the more free jazzy stuff they tend to do outside of their studio albums. Definitely worth a good listen. Unexpected things happen on this one.

6. Shadow of a Doubt - EVOL
I simply have to include this song onto my little list here, even though it's also on the Hits Are For Squares compilation. EVOL is the first of the band's records I got hold of. My sister's boyfriend gave it to me when I was just a kid, 11 years old or so. This was some of the most terrifying music I had heard back then. I listened to it in a period where me and my friends started getting into horror movies. The song-title is taken from a Hitchcock film, so it all makes sense in a way. Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo's flashiolet arpeggios sound really special to me, and the whole thin 80s production makes EVOL stand out like a somewhat frosty experience.

7. Little Trouble Girl
Little Trouble Girl resembles Kim Gordon's ability of evoking childhood memories in a murky light. Her work with the band Free Kitten is the clearest point of her critical queer-theory/feminist agenda, that we also encounter on Contre Le Sexisme from A Thousand Leaves. In this song, there is an ironic feel to the whole subject of living the conventional life of society's gender roles, with the girl choir and all. But still it's piercing.

8. Winner's Blues
A seldom acoustic song from the hands of Sonic Youth. It's fun to listen to this song when you have just heard Thurston Moore's recent solo album. There's almost a George Harrison feel to his guitar playing on this song, hinting at indian raga narratives.

9. (She's in a) Bad Mood - Confusion is Sex/Kill yr. Idol)
The hellish sounds of the earlier work with Glenn Branca is more present on many of the tracks on the Confusion Is Sex...album. Cobbled with a punk attitude the high amount of dissonance is extremely powerful. This song is destructive as hell, and I love it. It's also a good example of how Sonic Youth can use their guitars to create sounds that you do not hear coming from electric guitars normally.

10. III - In The Fishtank 9 (with The Ex and I.C.P)
Another collaboration. This is somewhat daring and challenging to listen to. Like a modernistic splintering kaleidoscope the free jazz movements of this improvised record are quite hectic. The Ex are with them in the tank, and the strange and energetic ways of the Dutch band is important for this piece.

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Pinkunoizu are set to play the following show:

November
28 London The Lexington