King Blood – “Eyewash Silver” – [Permanent Records]

abacus   11/2/2011   12-inch, A Library

King Blood is ex-Snake Apartment guitarist and Skulltones Records frontman Ryland Wharton. This repress of a super-limited edition LP is also very limited (300 copies) and recorded on four track for a supremely thick and noisy lo-fi ??experience. All the tracks engage the listener with simple, mantra-like desert blues themes repeated into their own echoing, claustrophobic distortion for an entrancing meditative dirge. The scuzzy, overblown guitar riffs are washed in reverb and feedback and fraught with distant guitar psych-outs. Bass rhythms and minimal drumming peak from underneath the torrents of fuzz and muddy static. Vaguely reminiscent of Neil Young’s solo guitar work for the film Dead Man but with the intensity of Stooges riffage. Play it loud!!