EMILY ROBB - How To Moonwalk / If I Am Misery Then Give Me Affection CD

CD only.

Highly recommended.

Across two LPs of cracked guitar explorations crammed onto a single disc, the work of Philadelphia's Emily Robb (Astute Pallet, Lantern, Rock Candy) pays reverent homage to the guitar gods of the past while also nodding in recognition to lineages of minimalist and experimental music.

From the Chuck Berry-esque riffs of her 2021 debut How To Moonwalk (Petty Bunco) through to the more contemplative explorations of 2023’s If I Am Misery Then Give Me Affection (Petty Bunco), these two albums slowly pull apart and reconstruct the support beams of rock music into something familiar but entirely it’s own.

Gone are the song structures and 4/4 back beats. In their place we’re left with Robb’s meditatively repetitive and careening guitar playing underpinned by droning organs and fizzling amp noise.

FFO: Henry Flynt, The Velvet Underground’s Legendary Guitar Amp Tapes, The Double, classic rock guitar amp mutilation (see: Link Wray, Dave Davies)