Thurston Moore has been a long time fan of the amazing Italian My Cat Is An Alien duo and after having played gigs together and released some of their out of print records on his own Ecstatic Peace label it?s logical that they team up for a split release. This is the first release in a new series of split releases entitled "From the Earth to the Spheres" and you might as well want to grab volume 2 right away as it besides MCIAA also includes the of transcendental sounds of the amazing San Francisco quartet Thuja.

But let?s head back to the two epic tracks on this album. Moore is first out with ?American Coffin?, which kicks off with a wild, avant-gardish section that features equal parts fragmented piano, weird sonic collages and shards of guitar feedback. I have to say that the slightly Stockhuasen-esque introduction initially puzzles more than it pleases but the further in we get the more sense it makes. And the closing minutes are just pure piano bliss that provides an almost perfect abstract mood of reverie and a slightly melancholic foundation that MCIAA can build their track from. That being said, it?s not really obvious when the first track moves into the next, and that?s a great compliment given how different they in terms of sonic structure. Just like the title of the track (?Brilliance in the Outer Space?) may indicate, we get to see a close-up of a sound sculpture that evolves slowly and explores the sonic depth of minimal guitar textures in a very impressive way. It shimmers, drones and pulsates through its 21 minutes of dense ambient fog and more structured noise. The mood is mostly subdued though with guitar notes dropping like cosmic rain into a whirlpool of black wind and exploding in multiple directions simultaneously. ?Brilliance in the Outer Space? seems to dictate its own space; by the time it?s over the track seems to have simultaneously begun and ended. 7/10 -- Mats Gustafsson (25 May, 2005)