In 1995 Jim O’Rourke was just 25, and he was already being referred to
as “the da Vinci” of experimental music. God knows what that makes him
now. The intervening 16 years have seen a famous and productive stint in
Sonic Youth along with countless other all-star collaborations, a
clutch of critically acclaimed solo albums, and an ever-expanding
portfolio of film work (see here for the mind-bogglingly long list of credits). And even that, apparently, was only the merest tip of the O’Rourkean iceberg.
As if their street cred in the field of drone and experimental
electronics needed any further cementing, back in April Austrian label
Editions Mego (home to Fennesz, Hecker, Mark Fell, and Oneohtrix Point
Never, among many illustrious others) announced a “nearly regular series
of vinyl albums documenting analog synth and tape works (both studio
and live) from the depths of Jim O’Rourke’s archive.” That series goes
by the name of Old News. If you’re a real O’Rourke nut, the title
will already be familiar to you. It began in 2002 as a series of
cassette-and-CD-R-only releases put out in extremely low numbers while
on tour in Japan and got as far as volume four before being picked up by
the wise folks at Editions Mego. There are no plans at present to
reissue the first four, meaning that we begin here with Old News #5.
And what a good way to start...
Oh and here's some video of O'Rourke noodling in Tokyo. Look at him. He's like experimental music's very own answer to Santa!
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