A long time ago, in the Desert
Yawning Man
Pothead
***1/2*
I just picked up this Desert Rock Classic over at GOME. Tagged as the inspiration for Kyuss, featuring Desert Rock Mainstays (Mario Lalli, Alfredo Hernandez, Brant Bjork,etc.) and all that came from that band (Unida, QOTSA, BRANT BJORK, etc). What Pothead offers is four tracks that reminiscent of Josh Homme's Desert Sessions Vol. 1. Though to be fair this offering pre-dates Hommes collective by more than half a decade. At times the music had me thinking about Angelo Badlamenti's avant garde jazz saturated soundtrack for David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Like that soundtrack each song is unto itself, but clearly part of a larger purpose
"Manolete", which opens the four track EP, is six and a half minutes of rock based jazz. High on sharp ethereal guitar lines, but very laid back. This isn't slick in any sense of the word. The bass line which dominates "Digital Smoke Signal" only slightly shakes up the quickly established Yawning Man formula. In the age of The Mars Volta these songs could easily be condensed, even lengthened, into one mammoth track. To be fair the timing does pick up over the course of the song drastically changing the mood of the song. If " Manolete" represents the darkness of the desert night, "Digital Smoke Signal" represents the coming dawn or the even impending sunset. Things change drastically on "Encounter with An Angry God". Of all the songs this probably comes closest to the blues metal that spawned a generation of bands. Though the song employs most of the same guitar effects, but Lalli shakes it up a couple of times. The sound approaches a certain chaotic aggression- that the previous songs didn't even hint at. The last song "Samba De Primavera" falls completely away from the pack. Driven by the rhythm section, the guitars go to work on some decidedly southwestern musical direction. Mariachi trumpets don't make an appearance but they wouldn't be out of place. This song almost seems like inspiration for a later desert rock collective, Orquesta Del Desierto. Similarly they infuse there brand of alt-rock with southwestern inspired music.
Like the aforementioned Desert Sessions Vol. 1, Yawning Man skips any over bearing vocals. Instead they let the music speak for itself. To the uninitiated or unlike tastes it might sound repetitive or boring. If anything it rounds out and gives a little color to all those bands that cropped up out the desert just outside of Los Angeles. Like Badlamentis soundtrack for the fictional Twin Peaks in the Northwest, Yawning Man is able to create a soundtrack for the all to real Desert rock community in the Southwest. An interesting revisionist experiment might be to lay some vocals or spoken word over the music. Former Screaming Tree, Twilight Singer Mark Lanegan might be a good candidate. Then again that might ruin the soundtrack.