Jesus Lizard – “Karpis”
Played By: Duane Denison
This sly, back-alley riff is less overt than
the others on my list. In fact, it is covert
in a sense, just like the gangster I assume
the song is named after. It is a predatory
sequence of notes and chords that
hypnotizes the listener into a vertigo mindmeld of cross-eyed wonder. Suddenly, the
victim is snapped into the kill-zone chorus
and death-rolled into sonic submission. It is
as if we are snatched from the safety of the
shore by a large, un-Jesus-like lizard poised
in the shallows. Duane Denison is a master
of macabre musical mechanisms. His chord
knowledge and rhythmic dexterity baitand-trap jazzers, musos and metalheads
alike, then bludgeon them one and all into
a pulp with a pulverizing conveyor belt of
killer riff repetition. To get close to his tone,
one must dial in a touch-sensitive, slightly
overdriven sound with a hi-fi edge, then feed
it into a digital delay with the slightest touch
of modulation. I have gotten scarily close
with a Magnetic Effects Satellite through a
Strymon DIG set to single slapback with the
Modulation set to Light.
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TONE TALK //
The 6 Scariest Riffs Ever Written