ON THIS DAY IN 1995 - A PAWNSHOP PEDAL BOUGHT THAT DAY BECAME THE SOUND OF “THE DIAMOND SEA”

ON THIS DAY IN 1995 — A PAWNSHOP PEDAL BOUGHT THAT DAY BECAME THE SOUND OF “THE DIAMOND SEA” 🎛️

While Sonic Youth were recording Washing Machine in Memphis, engineer John Siket noticed something unusual in a pawnshop near the band’s hotel: a large Ludwig Phase II Synthesizer, built more like a small suitcase than a conventional guitar pedal. One of its controls was marked “animation,” and even the gear-obsessed Siket had never encountered a Ludwig pedal before. 👀

He told Thurston Moore that he had to see it. Moore did—and bought it immediately.

There was no lengthy trial period and no cautious search for the perfect setting. Moore took the unfamiliar machine into the session and used it that same day while recording “The Diamond Sea,” the monumental closing track that would stretch across roughly 20 minutes of Washing Machine. 🌊🎸

The effect was not buried somewhere deep in the finished recording. Lee Ranaldo later identified the Ludwig Phase II as the source of the distinctive pulsing sound heard at the song’s beginning. He would describe the device simply as the sound of “The Diamond Sea.” ⚡

The track’s construction became even more elaborate during mixing. Its final form combines multiple performances, with part of a backward two-track live mix placed beneath the forward version. The result is less like a conventional studio recording than a vast, shifting field of guitars—recognizable at first, then gradually dissolving into texture and noise. 🔄

On an album defined by experimentation, one of its signature sounds arrived through a chance encounter with an obscure machine in a Memphis pawnshop. Sometimes a song’s identity is waiting behind glass, ready to be plugged in. 💎

#musicOnOff #SonicYouth #WashingMachine #TheDiamondSea #AlternativeRock #NoiseRock #OnThisDay