(2021) Emily Robb - How to Moonwalk          


Review:
Emily Robb opens her first-ever solo album with an undulating blast of fuzz, a seesawing riff that lasts only about a minute, but obliterates concisely, without embellishment, a pure show of force. The guitarist, whom you might have caught on last year’s excellent David Nance-led Astute Palate record, explores fractured blistered guitar tone for most of this album, sculpting mammoth sonic sculptures from the vibrating conjunction of ax and amp. Robb is not that concerned with melody or rhythm. Her music is heavy and undifferentiated, much like the earliest Purling Hiss albums, a firehose of pure sensation. Listen long enough, though, to cuts like “Live at Speedwell,” and subtle shadings begin to emerge, a wailing treble solo arcing out over the dissonance, a shift in the color and depth of feedback underneath. Loud as it is, there is something almost meditative about the track, like a Rothko painting, pure red until it begins to dissolve and change under sustained observation. Bill Nace produced and recorded How To Moonwalk, capturing the visceral live energies of Robb’s performance. She is especially unhinged on the title track, “I Really Wanna Learn How to Moonwalk,” which grounds her buzzing histrionics with the simplest, most primitive kick drum rhythm. It’s effect is to transform pure roar into something like a blues vamp, intermittently incinerated by freeform guitar-play. Later, there’s a startling pause between “Arrow” and “(Here Comes the) Arrows,” a blot of white space that sounds like a swimmer coming up, gulping for air, then diving straight back into the depths. The album turns slightly more lyrical, if that’s the right word, in its second half, with the gorgeous, floating auras of “News from a Fog” and the pensive rumbling of “Saucer,” but returns to gasoline-accelerated flammability in the closer “Deeper Than Dust.” This is fierce, undiluted guitar power from a Philadelphia comer. — dusted





Track Listing:
1.Oom 00:52
2.Live at Friendship Speedwell 06:52
3.I Really Wanna Know how to Moonwalk 03:45
4.Where is the Foot of the Bed 01:51
5.Arrow 00:36
6.(Here Come the) Arrows of Fortune 05:02
7.News From a Fog 03:14
8.Saucer 01:47
9.Deeper Than Dust 03:22


Media Report:
Genre: alternative rock
Country: USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits