Few bands are as appropriately named as North Carolina's instrumental trio Husky. With an epic sound that's doomy, hypnotic and spacious — guitarist Phil Strickland has learned a thing or two from listening to The Edge — these three guys move well beyond the drone in which so many of their peers find themselves mired. In fact, once you realize that Husky's second album, The Sea King, is based loosely on the story of a 273-foot-long cargo ship of the same name — the largest vessel ever built in Bowdoinham, Maine, according to the band — the music makes a lot of sense. The disc opens with the clanging guitar and sense of adventure that is "The Drunkard," signifying the ship's maiden voyage. It journeys through fat fuzz, psychedelic drone, hazy shades of blues and ambient storms before concluding with "Leeward and Easy," an expansive, alternately violent and melancholy piece that represents the ship's demise in the spring of 1917 as it sank in the New York Harbor with a load of coal. Freeform and foreboding, moody and monumental, the music of Husky deserves to be heard beyond its niche audience.
Track Listing:
1) The Drunkard
2) Flagship
3) Mayans vs. Martians
4) Aboard the Relic
5) Rejoice
6) Trading on the High Seas
7) Red Light Returning
8) Leeward and Easy
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