GG King Evoker Tape 12″

I am super late to the GG KING party. I liked the CARBONAS but just never followed up on singer Greg King’s projects afterwards. My loss. If you are not a genre purist, get on this right now. GG KING takes the basic template of garage punk and cosmically melds it with the far reaches of the rock umbrella to create a delicious mix. Each song is basically an exercise in a new subgenre, and against all odds, it flows perfectly. Good songwriting is good songwriting. “Evoker 1 (Hellslime Radiating from the Basement)” opens the record with menacing bass, chopped windchime samples, dub drums, and ominous German spoken word, which leads right into “Evoker 2 (Circling Starmount),” a blistering, WEAKLING-style black metal assault, complete with blastbeats and shrieked vocals. “Trudging Towards Twilight” delivers a perfect stoner riff, which leads to the crypt-crawling deathrock of “Evoker 3 (Wotever Happens Next).” And so on, all incredible. The final track, “Leigh’s Castle,” stands out as a strong point, with gauzy guitars and keyboard arpeggios that sound like the dreamiest moments of DEERHUNTER meeting the looping shoegaze of MY BLOODY VALENTINE. Unbridled experimentation that pays off with a very weird, satisfying listen. I am going to make up for lost time and check out GG KING’s other records, and I recommend you do the same.

• Reviewer Nick Odorizzi
• Label Whispering South Wind
• Issue MRR #475 • December 2022