Lick.

Lovely term that, implying everything from a painterly, Fine Art flick of the wrist to the minimum possible unit in a cunnilingual encounter. At what point in a Riffs speed does it shade over into vibe either at the top or bottom end? Good question. I saw Sunn live for the first time last year. They were unspeakably loud, completely immersive, a mini-environment of their own. The only thing I’ve seen equivalently loud (never having seen MBV) was probably Merzbow, or possibly louder, Jah Shaka in Sheffield in about 1990. Actually, once you’ve seen Jah Shaka everything else bass-wise sounds a bit airy, dunnit? You certainly couldn’t suggest that Sunn riffed that night, or if they did the riffs were so slow and huge that it was impossible to compress them in the mind into any comprehensible form.

I suppose Seb’s question is kind of , what is the most torpid yet still somehow riffy riff ever? Instinctively I think the main contenders for that would have to be St Vitus or Electric Wizard.