i often wonder how i came across some of the albums i save or download. The First Original Silence can be counted among that Bermuda triangle of memes that float through the transom. I certainly keep an eye out for new music, especially when there are only two tracks which is highly valuable when getting to the end of the monthly paydirt.
so OS (that's a palindrome, yo) is a[nother] noise assault from the Sonic Youth family tree featuring: thurston moore, jim o'rourke, free jazzers from the Thing, a pair from the Ex plus the bass player from Zu. (I'm not going to pretend i know their names, and had to look up who constituted OS. thanks wikipedia. but looking at the lineup, the lineage from find to download makes a bit more sense.)
the record is more akin to the Ex than any of the other players involved (see their 2000 release Exhibition), considering a howling sax and driving drums make up the backbone of the songs. i picked up In the Fishtank 5 which they recorded with Tortoise maybe a year or so ago. The Fishtank series pits two bands together to write and record 30 minutes of new music in a weeks time. the record has its moments, but is a bit uneven. I guess the beauty of The First...- with it's 2 songs spanning 60 minutes- is that while a track may loose focus, there is ample time to correct course and end on a high note. In The Fishtank is more structured and looses spontaneity in its formal construction.
but it should by no means be considered an Ex record just as it cannot be considered a Sonic Youth record because TM is involved. there's plenty of crunchy distorted guitars and other electronics to provoke stylistic meandering. the second and more intriguing track (running 45 minutes) begins with bleeps, becomes the soundtrack to your worst nightmares, resurfaces underwater, hits a mellow jazz streak only to twitch to death on a surgeon's table. glorious.
