Kyuss - Wretch
Released by
Dali Records, on September 23rd, 1991
Currently distributed by Elektra Entertainment
Track listing:
- (Beginning of What's About to Happen) Hwy 74 - 04:43 (Homme)
- Love Has Passed Me By - 03:12 (Homme/Bjork)
- Son of a Bitch - 06:03 (Homme/Garcia/Oliveri)
- Black Widow - 02:44 (Homme)
- Katzenjammer - 02:23 (Homme/Cockrell)
- Deadly Kiss - 05:04 (Homme)
- The Law - 07:52 (Homme/Oliveri)
- Isolation - 02:48 (Homme)
- I'm Not - 04:39 (Homme/Garcia)
- Big Bikes - 05:01 (Bjork)
- Stage III - 04:13 (Bjork)
Total playing time - 48 minutes, 46 seconds.
Musicians:
John Garcia - Vocals
Josh Homme - Guitar
Brant Bjork - Drums
Nick Oliveri - Bass
Chris Goss - Bass on Black Widow and Deadly Kiss
Recorded and mixed at Headway Studios, 1991
Produced by Catherine Enny, Ron Krown and
Kyuss
Mixed by Chris Fuhrman and Michael Mikulka
Engineered by J.B. Lawrence
Mastered by Carol Hibbs at K-
Disk
Layout & Design by Harlan Williams
Art Direction by NTS
Wretch is the most overlooked album by the most overlooked rock band of the 1990s. Most people hear Blues For The Red Sun first, if they like it they might pick up Welcome To Sky Valley or ...And The Circus Leaves Town. It's usually only the people who really, really dig Kyuss who go out of their way to track down a copy of their somewhat elusive first album, Wretch.
Like many debut albums, Wretch is an extremely raw recording. While it doesn't have the same fuzzed-out, face crushingly heavy sound of Kyuss' later albums (Josh didn't start plugging his guitar into a bass amp until the band's Blues For The Red Sun era), it compensates with it's rawness, intensity, honesty and great riffs.
Wretch may not be the Kyuss you're familiar with, but it is most definitely Kyuss. In some parts, this album sounds like Black Sabbath (Son of a Bitch), while in other parts it sounds like the Ramones (Katzenjammer), but from start to finish it maintains that unique quality that makes it unmistakable for anything other than a Kyuss album. Wretch is not only an interesting record of Kyuss' roots as a band, it is also a great album. If you appreciate Kyuss' later work, you will like this. Sadly, it's barely still in print, but it's a true hidden gem that's definitely worth searching for.