"If Big Hotel felt like the band homing in on their prowess and energy, Desert So Green explores the limits of their sound, seeing what new styles they can dive into, deconstruct, and rebuild. The result is both the band's most experimental and cohesive record to date, a mass of cosmic krautrock, dreary ambient synths, and eerie avant-garde touches that guarantee any conventional song structure or form could never take root."
"Consider the wasteland take on Neu! that is "Canvas 11," the opening cut of the album. Humming synth lines, heavy basslines, and swooping, sun-kissed guitar riffs come in over Shelly's steady snare hits as the song gradually builds. But instead of letting it bloom into any sort of climax, the band allows the energy to rise and fall naturally, unafraid to let their music shift into natural whirs of decay and echo."
Winged Wheel expanded its personnel for Big Hotel, adding Steve Shelly and Lonnie Slack, shifting toward brighter, louder noise-rock psychedelia that sounded like a long-standing jam among friends. The band kept the same lineup for Desert So Green and pursued more experimental impulses while consolidating cohesion. The record blends cosmic krautrock, dreary ambient synth textures, and eerie avant-garde elements, deliberately avoiding conventional song structures. Tracks like "Canvas 11" favor gradual build and decay over climactic release. Songs such as "More Frog Poems" and "Beautiful Holy Jewel Home" emphasize heavy guitar fuzz, slow drums, and distant, cult-like buried vocals.
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]