Album Review: Sonic Youth - Diamond Seas

Sonic Youth 

Diamond Seas

**** out of *****

One of the more intriguing Record Store Day releases this year comes from Sonic Youth who worked with John Oswald for this unique offering. Back in the early 90's Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead approached Oswald about a project using his "plunderphonics" style, the result was Greyfolded, By piecing together various live versions of the Grateful Dead classic "Dark Star" Oswald managed to create something new and exciting (RtBE has been a fan of this since it's release). Now he shifts his talents to SY doing the same thing for their most experimental jam, "The Diamond Sea".

Like Greyfolded, Diamond Seas contains two new unique visions of the tune that Oswald created by going back through all of the played versions. Unlike "Dark Star", which was played 255 times over The Grateful Dead's thirty year career with wild degrees of variety, "The Diamond Sea" was only played for two years by Sonic Youth. There were only 32 live versions to work with (plus the studio version). RtBE was lucky enough to catch "The Diamond Sea" live once, but it didn't sound like this.

Oswald split them up for two versions, the first containing only performances from 1995 and the second from 1996, both tunes run exactly 20:44 and are perfect for vinyl. The weird noises and avant-garde sounds increase with each spin as the multiple layers of audio heaped upon each other creates something beautiful in the noise.  

The '95 effort starts with what seems to be different levels of recording quality, from rough bootleg to more clear soundboard clarity, as the lyrical part of the song moves from the forefront to the background. The strumming and screeching from Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore start up and the song devolves into cacophony around the 6:30 mark before climbing back to life around eleven minutes in. The clapping and circular playing rises up at thirteen minutes in before falling into the ether. Clanging eerie noises run the show until around seventeen minutes, until an exhaling finale. 

The '96 version is a bit more interesting and laced with tons of feedback. The sample Oswald uses to start finds Moore fittingly dedicating this to Yoko Ono. Wah-wah work begins the proper song as things sound crashing and underwater, before vibes get freaky with lots of sonic changes in the verse. 

Things start to get noisier quicker here as layers of static slowly rise into madness. Cool guitar lines at around 9:30 hint at a change but more layered static arrives like an avalanche. Nuanced drifting warbling sound kicks in around the thirteen minute mark before cascading out like rain around fifteen minutes. Lyrics come back in drips and drabs around seventeen minutes, while wind like feedback blows through as the song ends with meditative ease. 

A very cool project from SY and Oswald, Diamond Seas clearly leans on the artsier side of the Sonic Youth pendulum, this isn't for casual fans, just the hardcore (which RtBE certainly are). A pretty perfect usage of Record Store Day. 

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