ARCHIVE
REDISCOVERED
IDAHO
The Devil You Know (1992–1996)
Heavy chemistry:
Jeff Martin and John Berry
ARTS & CRAFTS
8/10
First three albums by recently reinvigorated slowcore pioneers back in print
WHEN LA’s Idaho, two friends in their late twenties, dropped Year After Year in 1993, it landed hard and heavy.
Opener “God’s Green Earth” began with a circular four-string guitar riff, triggering an earthquake after 45 seconds and collapsing into a dusty cloud of feedback and distortion. The technique was familiar from Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, except this moved at a glacial pace, and while Kurt Cobain weaponised his rough, raw voice, Jeff Martin’s was, if deeper, a cracked, tranquilised drawl like Mark Eitzel’s on AMC’s Everclear.