Most Sonic Youth fans know that the full band is unlikely to reunite. In recent years, those eager for new encounters with the group’s sound have made do with various members’ side projects and surprise guest appearances. (Kim Gordon and Lee Ranaldo even shared a stage at Dinosaur Jr’s 30th birthday bash.) Archived live shows and vinyl reissues of classic albums have trickled out of the band’s surviving merchandise machine. Though given how well Sonic Youth documented its prime-era productivity—with experimental EPs and imaginative collaborations showing up nearly as often as song-based albums—it’s reasonable to assume that the vaults aren’t stacked with unjustly overlooked material.
The gloomy state of this lowered-expectations game means that Spinhead Sessions prompts some moderate thrills. Titled after the studio where the band rehearsed for a movie-soundtracking job, these purely instrumental pieces from 1986 offer another look at musicians who had just recorded EVOL (and who were about to write Sister). At this point, they were so locked-in that they could prove compelling during practice time.
The music Sonic Youth contributed to 1987’s Made in USA was not released until 1995—that is, near the peak of the group’s major label-clout period (as well as that of the CD boom). That official soundtrack has never been mistaken for anything other than a collection of miniatures, few of which are given a chance to develop past the three-minute mark. Spinhead Sessions outdoes Made in USA merely by letting Sonic Youth be Sonic Youth. Freed from the need to provide concise film-music cues, they push a few of the spare themes created for a side-hustle gig into substantial workouts.
These performances are no less subtle for their matter-of-fact titles. “Ambient Guitar and Dreamy Theme,” the 16-minute opener, stirs nervy, tremolo guitar effects and a simple melodic line into a cauldron of dread in its first half. Eventually the atmosphere calms, thanks to some lightly strummed chords. “Theme With Noise” mixes some seductive slide-guitar playing into its miasma, and “High Mesa” builds from dreamy to cathartic, led by Steve Shelley’s gradually more forceful drumming. Overall, this half hour anticipates the tossed-off mastery of EPs the band would later issue through their SYR imprint.
That opening trio of cuts is the best this particular drawer in the vault has to offer. From there, Sessions tenders four shorter, less ambitious tracks. In terms of running time, this sequence pads the release out beyond EP length—though the material isn’t any more compelling than most stretches on Made in USA. Yet despite its clear status as a barrel-scraping effort, this album isn’t just for the most desperate fans. While it’s unavoidably casual in nature, the bulk of this set provides the pleasure of Sonic Youth during an era of good spirits and high creativity.
