Kim Gordon: Unsettling Explorer

 

Who mixes trip hop, trap, and krautrock on the same record and lives to tell the tale? Kim Gordon does, and at 72 years old, in just 30 minutes, she doesn’t just survive, she leaves everything else on the floor.

Her voice sounds as wrecked as Iggy Pop’s, and that’s a compliment. Maybe Pop should seriously consider doing something similar.

What Gordon is doing isn’t that surprising if you’ve been following her closely. Since the ’90s, Sonic Youth had already been flirting with hip hop. Nick Sansano, a sound engineer specialized in the genre, co produced the band’s classic Daydream Nation in 1988. On Goo (1990), they invited the legendary Chuck D of Public Enemy to appear on “Kool Thing.” By 1993, they had already collaborated with Cypress Hill on “I Love You Mary Jane.” Anyone who doesn’t understand why Gordon is doing these kinds of experiments simply hasn’t been paying attention.

Sonic Youth’s noise experiments are in the past. Play Me is something else: it’s the sound of the algorithm being hacked. It’s closer to James Ferraro and Playboi Carti than to Television or the Ramones, although Gordon remains connected to New York No Wave and the records Rick Rubin produced for the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, and Run DMC. That through-line exists. Gordon stretches it without breaking it.

The title track could easily have come from a CAN album or from some 1980s hip hop record. The title itself is a direct nod to modern playlists and to that diverse music that today emerges more from the internet than from a physical vinyl collection.

“Girl With a Look” is a post-punk piece with a powerful bass line and synthetic rhythms that wouldn’t have felt out of place on any of Sonic Youth’s more experimental records. “No Hands” returns to hip hop, but with very idiosyncratic doses of electronics. “Dirty Tech” sounds like a hypnagogic composition by James Ferraro, the kind of sound that lives in the most underground corners of the internet. “Not Today” is different: it turns out to be a fabulous homage to Neu!

Dave Grohl sits behind the drums to accompany Gordon on “Busy Bee,” a dynamic and restless track where Gordon seems to revisit krautrock. “Square Jaw” will probably sound strange to many: trap sounds envelop Gordon and give her a completely new context, more experimental than anyone would expect. “Subcon” continues the dark onslaught with a bass that roars like a furious beast. “Post Empire” starts from a hip hop base but Gordon takes it into territories of dark, menacing electronics.

Play Me is confusing and strange. And once again, that’s a compliment.

Gordon has made the perfect album for this moment. A glorious snapshot of a hazy instant in which nothing is what it seems. With this record, she enters her fourth decade as one of the most fascinating figures in experimental music, and Play Me only confirms it.