Sonic Youth – 'Sonic Youth - Remastered & Expanded’ (Geffen) Released 03/04/06

Herein lies Sonic Youth’s debut EP, remastered and bolstered with a 7 song live set from September 1981 and an early studio take of ‘Where the Red Fern Grows’ which was retitled and re-recorded ‘I Dreamed I Dream’. Two things strike the listener immediately, the first being that those guitars are already there. The detuned, off-kilter sound that is so uniquely theirs is primed and ready to go from opener ‘Burning Spear’, which also has the strangest manifestation of noise I have ever heard (a drill through a wah wah apparently).

The guitars occupy quite a large empty space, shards and fragments rather than wall of noise until the penultimate track ‘I Don’t Want to Push It’ (a more ironic title I can not imagine, considering Sonic barely relented from pushing it for 25 years now) where the sound begins to mass and the sonic envelope begins to bulge. The second factor that comes as something more of a surprise is the influence of… reggae! Confusing this listener at first, it was a relief to find Thurston alluding to this in the comprehensive sleeve notes that accompany the album. Kim Gordon’s bass testifies to this largely unacknowledged influence but it is even more prominent in drummer Richard Edson sparse and tuned percussion. Steve Shelley soon replaced Edson and his drumming whilst certainly not bad does sound here like it’s restraining the group’s wayward and soon to be thrilling looseness. There is an enormous sense of space around this music, making it very much akin to the sounds of UK post-punk (especially of the Martin Hannet variety).

But, it’s all there and though it’s a slightly tamed beast, the rope was never going to hold it for long. A fascinating document and an auspicious beginning to a genuinely revolutionary, uncompromising and magisterial band.