White Manna

While many hoarders of guitar effect pedals lean toward making something big and melodic, in the spirit of My Bloody Valentine or Dinosaur Jr., the Humboldt, Calif., quintet White Manna creates a darker, more foreboding sound. With cascading waterfalls of distorted guitar riffs pouring over heavily affected vocals, “Acid Head” opens the band's 2012 eponymous debut album. It sounds as if Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce had grown up on Black Sabbath records instead of Velvet Underground vinyl. The more propulsive “Keep Your Lantern Burning” rocks out like Dead Meadow covering The Stooges before “Mirror Sky” drives a mantra riff, like The 13th Floor Elevators playing in a black hole. At nine and a half minutes, “Don’t Gun Us Down” is the EP’s epic. Here the band makes the most use of its effects, approximating a sonic storm of noise that gradually swells into a blissed-out apex of feel-good cacophony. The closing song, “Sweet Jesus,” blasts nearly nine minutes of fast-throttled drone rock pumped through gallons of reverb, over which David Johnson sings in a cool, demure haze.