The Slow Blade has shown us exactly what Hell looks like: the blues as played through a skateboard transformed into a guitar. If that sounds familiar, that’s because The Slow Blade is the new alias of Dann Gaymer (Ravages, New Age of Decay, Peachy Carnehan, Round Eye, Guiguisuisui, Nekroma, Loooooongish Cat, Daftpop Sounds), a British born artist who spent 15 years lurking in East Asia and touring the world, having played in over 20 countries, and released dozens of albums and EPs.
On his newest joint, “Sinful Ways,” The Slow Blade howls and yowls his way to redemption, one part death metal, two parts, punk, and seven parts blows. In the midst of it all are looping beats and the ominous rumble of Gaymer’s “Diddly Board,” his one-string skateboard guitar.
“The single is the first in a series of songs written and recorded in Beijing over around 10 days at the start of 2022 with the self-imposed challenge of using the Diddly Board as the primary instrument with the addition of only some harmonica and random trinkets sampled for percussion (including a cardboard box, a shaker of cumin seeds, and a plastic skull),” explains Gaymer. “The results are crunchy, sparse, and proudly lo-fi. To maintain the immediacy and rawness of the music the whole thing was recorded is a handful of takes, mixed the following week, and then mastered by Jim Diamond in Detroit, MI.”