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Kyuss: Wretch

21/09/09 || Habakuk

Kyuss is one of these names that get thrown around a lot, however their first album “Wretch” is not exactly universally acclaimed and I really don’t know why. It’s different, but does that mean it’s worse? That’s racist!

What we get is obviously stoner rock, but where later albums stray away into sludgy semi-ambient territory (alright, I’m exaggerating), back in ’91 the guys around Josh Homme definitely still had enough heaviness to rock through an album of 50 minutes, hair flying in the wind and doing all that fancy stuff rockers do when rocking.

“Wretch”‘s already got some smooth sludge as well, though, just combined with a bit more speed and an overall rawer sound and feel. For evidence, just listen to “Stage III”, a phased-out instrumental (if you don’t count a subdued “yeah” towards the end) and probably one of the grooviest pieces of music that has ever meandered from my speakers and has a perfect, simplistic main riff that’s carried throughout almost the whole song on spaghetti-like bass strings. The pasta sound derives from the downtuned nature of the dish at hand, because if I remember correctly, then everything’s tuned to C. “Blomp blomp”, nodded the bass guitar.
I can’t help but imagine a herd of pretty laid-back elephants striding along when I hear that song. It’s got the later albums’ relaxed flow, just with a lesser amount of psychedelia marihuana bonanza™.

So yes, different Kyuss here, also as among the other songs, there’s a refreshing amount of speedier titles that make “Wretch” a lot more enjoyable to my ears than later Kyuss records as a whole, which do have a couple killer tunes but sort of lose me somewhere in the middle amidst of a bunch of songs whose titles I can’t for the life of me remember.

The drums have a muffled, thumpy sound to them that I think fits pretty well because it provides a smooth background, whereas the scratchy-sounding guitars are recorded in a way for you to hear a couple picks sliding along on the strings and some feedback in empty spaces, which of course adds to the rough edge this album undoubtedly shows. It’s not punk, but a fast kind of rock that didn’t make it onto later efforts in large numbers but only in the form of exceptions like “Green Machine” on the follow-up. And last but not least, John Garcia shouts out enough memorable lines in a rather nasal vocal delivery that elaborations like “cause I want some pussayyyyyayayay” or “goddayyymn son of a bitch” will stay in your head for a while. What he’s talking about in his lyrics are mainly women and women that can go fuck themselves. At least that’s my takeout. That’s sexist!

So, while among Kyussters this might not exactly be considered the band’s pinnacle effort, I actually think it’s one of the best things they’ve released. Although I enjoy the rest to some extent, after “Wretch” I miss the heavy edge they chose to abandon. Which proved a good thing for lonely desert highway drives at night, but a bad thing if you prefer your stoner rock rocking, not stoned.

Information
Released: 1991
Label: Dali Records
Website: Kyuss MySpace
Band
John Garcia: vocals
Josh Homme: guitars
Nick Oliveri : bass
Brant Bjork: drums

Tracklist
01. [Beginning of What’s About to Happen] Hwy 74
02. Love has passed me by
03. Son of a bitch
04. Black widow
05. Katzenjammer
06. Deadly kiss
07. The law
08. Isolation
09. I’m not
10. Big Bikes
11. Stage III

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