"wide open desert music" S/D

Currently enjoying Dust to Dust very much. Great interview, too.

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music - stuff like Dust to Dust, the Hired Hand soundtrack, any Scott Tuma, Eyvind Kang's Live Low to the Ground...

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, March 18, 2017 12:39 PM

Those last three are the biggies, imo, assuming you probably already know the Paris, Texas soundtrack. Do you know a band called Padang Food Tigers? They definitely hit on this vibe quite a bit, despite being about as far from the desert landscape as you can get (UK, iirc). Also, there are a lot of people working this angle from a dronier / noisier angle, like pedal steel guitarist Chas Smith (not to be confused with drummer Ches Smith), William Fowler Collins, and probably a few others.

There are probably people who can direct you to the "right" Calexico records, too (there are instrumental albums that definitely touch on this style) but I'm not really well-versed enough to say

― Wimmels, Saturday, March 18, 2017 1:03 PM

Yes - love the Food Tigers! And, aye, definitely uk based. Paris, Texas is all-time. I'd forgotten Chas Smith. Santa Fe is a hell of a thing. Will check William Fowler Collins, for sure. Cheers.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Saturday, March 18, 2017 1:10 PM

I want a recommendation engine for 'wide open desert' music

See also:

Susan Alcorn - And i await the Resurrection (maybe not her best, but its what I have)
Barn Owl - any
Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas of course, also look for Trespass, Last Man Standing OSTs
Dead Texan - eponymous debut
Bruce Kaphan - Slider: Ambient Excursions for Pedal Steel Guitar
Long Desert Cowboy - any
Rainer (Ptacek) - Nocturnes

― Sanpaku, Saturday, March 18, 2017 11:14 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

if Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age is part of this genre, I'm starting a thread

― sleeve, Saturday, March 18, 2017 11:19 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark

that Eyvind Kang record is one of my favorite things ever.

does Scenic fit in here? it's been a long tiem since I heard those records.

thanks in advance thread

I forgot to mention the two Slim Westerns albums by A Small, Good, Thing (aka O Yuki Conjugate).

I think of Scenic as more western tinged instrumental rock. There's an omnipresent drum kit, which keeps it out of ambient territory.

Though they include a few songs, the two albums by Maggie Björklund (Coming Home (2010) and Shaken (2014)) may belong here, too.

most calexico, i think?
friends of dean martinez

thx for the A Small, Good, Thing recommendations, I am a big OYC fan and have always meant to check them out.

I feel like some specific Dirty Three tracks might fit in here as well, or Tren Brothers?

Funny somebody mentioning Scenic which I think was intentionally influenced by the local Arizona scenery.
I always get images of the long range desert group driving landrovers across the sahara when listening to tracks from Jamahiriya by Licher's earlier Savage Republic. Which was my immediate response to the title question.

The most recent Daniel Lanois album, Goodbye to Language - a whole album of droney pedal steel. My favorite album of 2016.

surprised no one's mentioned earth this side of hex; or printing in the infernal method. or are they outside the boundaries?

William Tyler?

earth - hex was my second thought

my first thought was the track 'despite the roar' by bardo pond

black sun ensemble - the self-titled one on reckless with a goldfish flying thru space on the cover

Yeah was going to mention Mr Acedo and folks. 1st lp got a cd reissue a few years ago but not sure fi it's still around.
I came in via Lambent Flame and wasn't sure what track was very deserty but since Acedo came from the desert region I think it is heavily reflected in the music.

gosh lambent flame, that record was not kind to my ears. 2nd s/t is just lovely the whole way through

Neil Young's Dead Man soundtrack.

This is magnificent. A day imagining the loneliness, the wind a fibrous wall... I keep thinking of a line from the Monkey Wrench Gang: 'the desert eased his vague anger'.

I know vocals and drums wreck the spirit of this kind of stuff, but Whitewater by Kyuss is pure desert.

I bought a Scenic record once just because of the impressive brown paper packaging. I didn't go back to the music inside very much though.

The Bruce Kaphan slide guitar thing sounds cool

Probably goes without saying but the new Hired Hand tribute record on Scissor Tail is beautiful and is wide open space music all the way. It's on Spotify if that's your thing.

african desert music (made by people who grew up in and live in deserts!) like BARGOU 08, TAMIKREST, TINARIWEN, and BOMBINO isn't half bad, either

Six Organs of Admittance (especially the albums The Sun Awakens and Shelter From the Ash)

Would including Gil Evans's arrangements be too much of a stretch? Sketches of Spain and parts of Out of the Cool and Indvidualism of... always evoke the desert for me.

Western Skies Motel are good at this stuff. Settlers from last year is great.

Cheers for the Slim Westerns recommendation.

A couple other aesthetics that are distinct but related: I see Dead Texan has been mentioned already, but I want to put in a plug for "Sun Drugs" off the underrated Stars of the Lid release The Ballasted Orchestra, as it totally nails the feeling of laying​ in a wide-open field under a cloudless sky listening to the rumble of distant jet aircraft. Also, the recent GYBE album with the title beginning Asunder, Sweet... gives me a very strong out-of-the-blistering-midday-heat, into-the-cool-shade-of-the-suq vibe

Labradford - Mi Media Naranja

^ good twangy morricone vibes, but also twinkly electronics that make me think of satellites flying across a vast starry sky

Labradford - Mi Media Naranja

^ a midway point between eno and morricone, a desert drifter looking up into the night sky and seeing twinkling satellites sailing across the vastness overhead

Lol fucking phone playing tricks on me

thanks in advance thread

― example (crüt), Sunday, March 19, 2017 1:30 AM (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Should add for anyone who missed it on the Steve Roach thread that the Dust to Dust mentioned up top which started this is his collaborative album with Roger King:

https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dust-to-dust

It is and remains one of my all time favorite albums.

If people have mentioned Sketches of Spain the Grateful Dead's lift as Spanish Jam should also fit as should other of their stuff.

I was thinking bits of QMS too especially Calvary.

oh yeah and on the QMS tip there are some longer Rangda pieces ("Plain Of Jars", "...Hermetic Museum") that fit in here, and Sun City Girls' Funeral Mariachi album (but not much else of theirs imo)

this thread was better when it was a little more specialized and not "this drone band used clean guitars and a slide once"

ah yes the long 13hr lifespan of this thread

Brokeback, Brokeback and the Black Rock

William Tyler?

― just sayin, Sunday, March 19, 2017 4:27 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Absolutely William Tyler!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRGns0huaCM

This is my favorite kind of Calexico and as mentioned above it fits the thread theme very well.

I could certainly recommend the proper instrumental/experimental Calexico stuff if anyone was actually interested.

Train Songs by Two Dollar Guitar.

Brian Grainger – Blue Wheatfield: https://wil-ru.bandcamp.com/album/blue-wheatfield
lots of stuff by Expo '70; e.g., Inaudible Bicoastal Trajectory: https://aguirrerecords.bandcamp.com/album/inaudible-bicoastal-trajectory

https://www.discogs.com/Garlo-Vent-De-Guitares/release/1575820

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jjIhVE7ek4

man I had forgotten about that Two Dollar Guitar album

thanks to crut for those last two as well

probably everyone here has heard Brightblack Morning Light but they definitely fit

Brightblack Morning Light ... WTF?

"Susan Alcorn - And i await the Resurrection (maybe not her best, but its what I have)"

you need to get her extremely lovely Soledad album, Sanpaku or anyone who digs this aesthetic.

I'd take a more desert-focussed Calexcio primer, Evan. Cheers. 'Hot Rail' is fantastic.

Date Palms "Dusted Sessions"

re: Calexico, The Black Light and Spoke are both great for winding/long stretches, southern Utah driving. also, seconding Dirty Three and Tren Brothers. Whatever You Love You Are is a beauty, though it's less propulsive. Bad Timing by Jim O'Rourke is an absolute slam dunk.

I recall Lanterna, who incidentally did a split release with Scenic, being described as "atmospheric desert music" or some such

I loved all the Yo La Tengo music in Old Joy--not sure if that fits your definition, but it does recall the Paris, Texas soundtrack, I think, and they do do a lot of driving in the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcuXOtwZSiw

Yawning Man

Meat Puppets debut and second

http://www.bendingcorners.com/2005/desert_moments/ is a good mix of this sort of thing

The Bruce Kaphan is nice as expected. Wide open chords

Some Mazzy Star/Hope Sandoval would probably apply

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAb8NbM8PKU

I'd take a more desert-focussed Calexcio primer, Evan. Cheers. 'Hot Rail' is fantastic.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Sunday, March 19, 2017 5:10 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would start with both Toolbox and Travelall, as they're both instrumental and have the same vibe as the Hot Rail track. Hot Rail the album however is my favorite straightforward Calexico record (the previous two I recommended were originally tour only CDs). Atmosphere was clearly a number one priority at the time. Later it dropped a little with each subsequent album as they moved closer and closer to more straightforward pop/rock.

Some samples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvv9dQX12kc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQtGHOeflTM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Esbtr6LKHdg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxO6kVo5P7E

That being said after driving up and down Arizona this past October I found William Tyler to be the most powerful accompaniment to the sights. I made a desert mix especially for the trip. I should revisit to see what I'm forgetting.

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

Jimmie Dale Gilmore's singing always makes me think of the desert southwest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGsTrLaDaHQ

I think of Scenic as more western tinged instrumental rock. There's an omnipresent drum kit, which keeps it out of ambient territory.

Harold Budd appears on the last Scenic album, which adds +50 to ambient

Bruce Licher's bandcamp also has this great 45min piece he and his wife put together for an installation of hers:
https://brucelicher.bandcamp.com/track/suspension-of-disbelief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LGt2N5L4JA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6V9vEO76Z8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4S-aE879T0

Chris Isaak's old guitarist James Wilsey (that's him on "Wicked Game") has an instrumental album out that's well worth tracking down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7XBBRvNkBk

Brian Grainger - Eight Thousander
https://attacknine.bandcamp.com/album/eight-thousander

Lost in the morass of mid-90s surf rock was this great album by Death Valley.
https://www.discogs.com/Death-Valley-Que-Pasta/release/2335153

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86l9awk-VLY

Nice Cocteau Twins cover too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClZnB84DljY

Jon Porras' Black Mesa is the first thing that came to mind

And there has to be some Barn Owl as well, I think Lost in the Glare is the one that sounds the most like that

That Cocteau Twins cover is great.

Earth - Bees Made Honey

giant sand own this thread. an example from "chore of enchantment", his masterpiece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJtbKgZkpc0

The whole "The Earth is not a Cold Dead Place" by Explosions in the Sky.

after moving to Texas, The American Analog Set's 'The Golden Band' suddenly made a lot more sense, striking me as the kind of music you would make after a brutal August day of 100+ degrees.

*wearily puts on high-vis jacket and gets to work* I can only side-eye the romanticised inhuman aesthetic at work here & wld question the appeal of it, even tho I like some of the music mentioned itt. also I wld humbly suggest that there is quite a bit of music from/indigenous to the desert (or the edge of it, I suppose) which is much better than this stuff *stretches back, sighs heavily, clocks off*

Quit humbly suggesting and actually suggest.

I've made a Spotify playlist of sorts, to which I'll add and mess about with the order as and when (Spotify web app is total bumcake).

The desert eased his vague anger

Christ, my tortured syntax: I'll change the order and add a few more tracks when I get the chance - ie when I'm not using the Spotify web app, which is shite.

all them sahel string instrumental players, hamza el din most especially

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2By_WxnL3AA

O the inhumanity of listening to non-indigenous, see-through romance music whlst driving through the american west, ffs

unless i'm missing something crucial, the "wide open desert music" under discussion here is, by and large, a genre of contemporary americana, sort of "post-country and western". in its essential form, you get clean, bright, reverb-heavy guitar lines drifting slowly through darkened ambient space. a combination of western twang, blues grit, and surf spaciness drained of vigor to point where it's practically undead, vampire music in cowboy drag (or vice-versa). dragging in hamza el din seems perverse.

I was with you until "drained of vigor", basically I started this thread to get more recommendations as to what else sounds like "Binah" from Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. the desert has color!

edited version, wtf this is supposed to be 27 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cajQehDpbsc

i agree that the non-american stuff doesn't fit with this cinematic staring across a (most often imaginary) desert soaking up the atmosphere vibe, hence just alluding to it initially. deserts in this context are a blank inhuman wilderness for the listener to passively inhabit & think/feel/do graphic design

I was with you until "drained of vigor"

yeah, that was my prejudice showing. i'm not a big fan of the cinematic slowcore western thing.

It doesn't have to be cinematic slowcore western. Sometimes it's a particular style of cinematic instrumental guitar. Or krautrock infused country.

As far as the original post(s), the thing that makes this sound so special is that there really aren't too many things that hit these specific buttons. Hired Hand, Tuma, "Binah," etc are singular, which is why this thread jumped the shark as soon as people started suggesting every 90s post rock band that liked Morricone

I do really like that Bruce Licher piece mentioned upthread, and that Garlo thing sounds amazing. But even these have almost nothing to do with the Steve Roach album that inspired this thread

i did this a while back was pretty happy w/it but if anything too on the nose

http://soundcloud.com/matthew-lee-helgeson/desert-jive

Nice! Here's a rough little jam I'd done when I was obsessing over Paris, Texas. Improving a little with messy results.

https://soundcloud.com/factual-1/open

i like that!

i like this sound but i do get a little suspicious of it, like it's almost too easy to hit those stylistic cues that conjure up desert stuff

Thanks!

Yeah I feel like you can say that about solo instrumental music or electronica or ambient... It's helpful to have a unique take and not rely too much on gimmicky flare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6YioCO0n8s

https://youtu.be/72csh1Zm38A
02 Oren Ambarchi - Knots (Touch)

ffs, it's silly to say this thread "jumped the shark" when it's got me listening to that Eyvind Kang record again (I downloaded it last time someone was raving about it on ILM, and liked it well enough, but it's been been a minute since I listened)

it's so good. his book of angels entry is fantastic too

Maybe the thread title could have been something more like 'music that sounds like the thing it's trying to imitate', or 'landscape music alchemy' or 'Richard Skelton plays quavery strings while ghostly children chant the names of lost Cumbrian villages.'

This video I had not seen before, and it is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYJkH6mdbAY

The Harold Budd / Clive Wright albums (3 in all iirc) are all very worthwhile

Does Michael Brooks' HYBRID fit this genre?

I know this thread was CONDEMNED for stepping outside some relatively arbitrary parameters, but I'm still off exploring tangents.

My favourite discovery has been the Padang Food Tigers album from last year, Bumblin' Creed. I loved Ready Country Nimbus (from 2012, I think), but this is something else again. We don't really have a tradition of 'landscape music' as such in the UK*, cos we're too hemmed in and our imaginations are too stunted by post-colonial melancholia to allow us to mythologise the landscape or something, but what these guys do is perfect, evocative 'wide open space' stuff.

*OK, some/most local folk music is arguably landscape music, but not in the sense of trying to evoke or transmute landscape into music.

And thanks to Evan for the Calexico primer - lots of those I was unaware of.

yeah I still need to dig into those

sorry for condemning the thread! landscape music is a clear and interesting way to put it. I think if anything it's a colonial tradition, that is, relating to a place through the atmosphere/impression offered by its landscape is something of an outsider/touristic approach mb. it seems of a piece with national geographic etc. when you said british landscape music i thought of the excellent chris watson, who has made field recordings all over the place but including in the UK (listening to stepping into the dark now). he did a thing with robert macfarlane which is another parallel seam of landscape-art. the relationship or contrast between this stuff and field recordings is interesting. I'm def more into the latter for whatever reason. they feel lighter.

can't think of much that might fit the "british (or old world in general) landscape music" description though, that is curious

this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yPnLIwIA1E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-px60iPueEk

can't think of much that might fit the "british (or old world in general) landscape music" description though, that is curious

maybe Diamond Mine by King Creosote and Jon Hopkins?

Last year's album Elite Feline by Lotto is a minimalist/mantric guitar trio take. bandcamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErG7vJ-L5-M

Must be something in the water: Latest Mojo with cover story on The Joshua Tree has an accompanying CD of "desert songs" that seems very, uh, compiled by British rockists who've never been to the desert

Good to see a mention of Giant Sand upthread---here's a little review of their uncrowded expansion I did several years ago---if you don't mind some company way out yonder, more than the occasional lizard etc., it's agreeable:
Giant​ ​Giant​ ​Sand, ​Tucson:​ ​​It's​ ​not​ ​so​ ​uncommon​ ​to​ ​hear​ ​albums​ ​inviting
comparisons​ ​to​ ​spaghetti​ ​western​ ​soundtracks,​ ​but​ ​few​ ​really​ ​'ppreciate​ ​the
possibilities​ ​of​ ​American​ ​and​ ​European​ ​give-and-take:​ ​Latin​ ​in​ ​the
Southwestern​ ​and​ ​Transatlantic​ ​senses,​ ​small​ ​room​ ​jazz​ ​a​ ​la​ ​Weill,
Ellington,​ ​Arizona​ ​highway​ ​lounge;​ ​steel​ ​guitars​ ​and​ ​twang​ ​bars​ ​with
nothing​ ​left​ ​to​ ​prove,​ ​Giant​ ​Sand​ ​(many​ ​of​ ​whom​ ​have​ ​been​ ​Danish​ ​for
some​ ​time) are now ​momentarily ​expanding​ ​into​ ​Giant​ ​Giant​ ​Sand​ ​and​ ​offering​
​​Tucson---which is billed
as​ ​a​ ​country​ ​rock​ ​opera, uh-huh---without​ ​ever​ ​being​ ​anythang​ ​that​ ​can't​ ​be​ ​hitched
to​ ​s​ ​dustcloud​ ​drum​ ​kit,​ ​usually​ ​bouncing​ ​through​ ​stagecoach​ ​ruts.
Sometimes​ ​swinging​ ​a​ ​little,​ ​though​ ​a​ ​droll​ ​drawl​ ​and​ ​and​ ​a​ ​tall​ ​tale​ ​(of​ ​love,
y'all--it's​ ​all​ ​very​ ​romantic,​ ​in​ ​a​ ​worldly,​ ​wide​ ​open​ ​spacey​ ​way).​ ​"You're​ ​so
much​ ​like​ ​the​ ​river/Beautiful,​ ​twisted​ ​and​ ​blue/You​ ​appear​ ​to​ ​be​ ​here
forever/Passin'​ ​through."​ ​And​ ​baby,​ ​it’s​ ​hot​ ​outside.

Also you might want to check the Giant Sand/Howe Gelb thread, or maybe not.

So Floating Points has literally been in the Mojave desert and recorded a load of "wide open desert music" which he is releasing soon.

https://www.floatingpoints.co.uk/

Oof - that sounds interesting. The Mojo CD, not so much.

Also thought about Alan Lamb's wire recordings, but I guess once we get into field recordings the whole thing suddenly widens into incomprehensibility.

Alan Lamb's recordings don't really evoke the desert for me. They're somewhere in the space between the Voyager probe's electromagnetic recordings, Thomas Köner's glacial atmospheres, and contact-mic'd long-string instruments (Alvin Lucier, Ellen Fullman).

Also thought about Alan Lamb's wire recordings, but I guess once we get into field recordings the whole thing suddenly widens into incomprehensibility.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski)

oh god i thought you meant something else when you said "wire recordings"

oh god i thought you meant something else when you said "wire recordings"

Like what?!

Either wire recording or Wire recordings, I imagine.

assuming the former :)

Found this on an old hard drive: https://www.mixcloud.com/lowlight/left-in-the-desert/

Couple of missteps, but basically full of excellent desert-y goodness (Earth, Lanois, Six Organs, Roach, Ennio etc)

Ikue Mori w/ Robert Quine and Marc Ribot, "Painted Desert."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxbU-GlVag

I nominate the severely underrated Steven R. Smith:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFD4Drgs3s

Captain Obvious checking in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPVexT6itPA&list=PLs2o_po-FzbF0Z_P-l4bQUDAllxLlFdry

Tinariwen:
https://youtu.be/PItnw3Z7WgY

Harold Budd "The Photo of Santiago McKinn" or pretty much all of Dawn's Early Light

that Mori/Quine/Ribot record is excellent and I had forgotten about it, good call

HI DERE (cross-posted from main Eyvind Kang thread for interested parties

A gorgeous set of new tracks by the brilliant composer and multi-instrumentalist Eyvind Kang. It took him a decade and a half to revisit the vibe concocted on his masterpiece from 2001, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age, but the wait was worth it. It features an array of spiritually intoxicating instrumentation: tamboura, electric guitar, organ, trumpet, oboe, trombone, and Korean traditional instruments. Eyvind Kang on Plainlight: "In 2002 I wanted to make a kind of sequel to my first solo record on Abduction, Live Low To The Earth In The Iron Age. I found that the 'weight' of sounds seemed to evaporate the compositions. The last thing I wanted to make was a traditional shoegaze recording. 15 years later, I had a strange dream: a voice said 'Because a plainlight has fallen in Heaven, heartbreak would cease.' This statement then became a kind of guiding image and method. Thus, with Korean traditional instruments playing the ostinato and drone, things fell into place. I would like to thank all the musicians, Randall Dunn, Alan Bishop, and each and every listener." Limited edition, one-time pressing; Edition of 400.

That's me well and truly sold - Live Low is magnificent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP1G-cdRuCM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BZnSC2u7RU

or any Thin White Rope song really...

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0152862597_16.jpg

Admittedly, the resultant wares don’t stray too far from the crafted templates McPhee has used previously but his capable hands continue, with increasing authority, to render bleakly alluring atmospheres that both express the intimacy of a solitary artisan and the desolation of wide empty landscapes. Hence, the opening “The Blood of St John” unfurls as a slow-motion desert-blues with a shimmering inscrutable underlay; “The Devil’s Knell” drifts along in a buzzing shadowy blur; the more sonically linear “The Rule Of Threes” pirouettes as a madrigal-like meditation; “Dance Macabre” curls yearning slide-playing around a pattern of looped melodic low-end parts; and the closing epic 14-minute title-track sprawls e-bow and slide manipulated figures across a heartbeat-pulsing percussive underbelly.

https://deanmcphee.bandcamp.com/album/four-stones

McPhee is brilliant. Been meaning to check this.

https://barthel-boehm-bauer.bandcamp.com/

Last year's album Elite Feline by Lotto is a minimalist/mantric guitar trio take. bandcamp

― Sanpaku, Saturday, April 8, 2017 11:44 AM (ten months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i would just like to say i've really been liking this, thank you

Would like to nominate “Ain’t Talkin’” by Bob Dylan (Modern Times album) for this thread.

Also: Andean music is pretty much made for this - high desert in particular (e.g., Inti Illimani, Atahualpa Yupanqui)

Co-sign the Lotto album. The Instant Classic label is a goldmine right now.

Bull of Heaven have a (mostly deserved) reputation for being a meme/gimmick/rymbait act, but I must admit that Return of Ghost Sheriff is some of the better desert ambient I've heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibu4bdRWCZQ

Thought this would be about Become Desert

My son out of the blue asked me if I'd 'ever been to a desert' before and I sort of have (drove from LA to Vegas, Dungeness is classified as a desert, a couple of the Cape Verde islands, particularly Boa Vista) but damn do I want to go to the desert right now. Doing the next best thing and listening to Paris, Texas.

this is more like a fata morgana in the desert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3YwOYjrqbQ

some incredible acoustic psych released a few months ago that i believe fits this mold:
https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/album/beacon

I love them!!!!

really happy we have this connection crut, I am in a FB record geek group with Matt and Jen and it has been great to hear their sound develop.

the solo Rolin and the Powers-Rolin duo recs are more post-Fahey but I agree that Cercyz' singing bowls etc. take this to a different wide-scope psychedelic place

nice! I'm friends w/the dude who runs the label :)

Beacon is a pretty cool record

been lucky to play a handful of times with matt and jen, they are some of nicest people i've ever met and the real deal. happy to see them getting more reknown. true underground stalwarts

they've also been putting on shows at a laundromat in cleveland, and i think it might be the coolest venue in the country. well, was, with covid. you get the idea. imagine seeing bitchin bajas at a laundromat!

SUSS posted the playlist for their recent Ambient Country mix and it's pretty great:

1. Swimming in a Western Hotel - PanAmerican
2. Body in a Room- Bing & Ruth
3. Thresholds ( through a hole in the fence) - Walt McClements
4. News About Heaven- Marisa Anderson, William Tyler
5. Ending- Bruce Langhorne
6. Love Scene - Jerry Garcia
7. When You Sleep - Japancakes
8. Welcome - Harmonia & Eno
9. Desert Rose - Daniel Lanois
10. Anteludium - Luke Schneider
11. Wichita - SUSS
12. Clouds - Bruce Kaphan

Thanks Elvis - this feels right up my alley. Going to check out everything here I've not heard before.

Thinking that Bruce Langhorne's Hired Hand soundtrack is to ambient country as Paul Giovanni's Wicker Man soundtrack is to acid folk

About half of that playlist is new to me and I’m thrilled to find them. Lots to dive into as this is my exact sweet spot these days.

By coincidence I’ve been fiddling around with a playlist to scratch this itch - not just the ambient but also some more traditional songs that rise and fall out of the moodier bits. There is no order to it, and I’m still adding and subtracting as I hone it. But in any case folks on this thread might enjoy this as a kind of radio station. Shuffle away: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1hfogoxEEmNfs3b8eG4u3X?si=rJI-IObaShi0kY4KxuXU9A

This playlist is great pgwp! Thanks for the share.

Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying it.

Cross post from the Fahey thread: the latest Imaginational Anthem compilation, featuring latest pedal steel excursions totally fits this thread's remit: https://tompkinssquare.bandcamp.com/album/luke-schneider-presents-imaginational-anthem-vol-xi-chrome-universal-a-survey-of-modern-pedal-steel (on Spotify too, if that's your thing).

oo la la, thanks for the cross post

Speaking of SUSS, the new self-titled one, a compilation of four different EPs, is really incredible. I love the vibe.

seems relevant

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/ambient-country-list

so I guess this stuff is called "ambient country" now, ok

Uncut included this Ambient Americana compilation CD with the Velvet Underground issue they put out a couple of years ago, might be relevant:

https://www.discogs.com/release/17866393-Various-Ambient-Americana-A-Road-Trip-Across-Psychic-State-Lines

There was a nice NTS show back in February: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-ambient-americana-16th-february-2023

I've been slowly putting together a playlist of 'wide open desert' and adjacent stuff. It's called Vaulted Ceiling, Vaulted Sky as some of it is in cathedrals and resonating chambers but chambers/canyons who's counting? Fill yer boots if it's your thing.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/504idjJNXjNKl2xajh8Pbv?si=b5fed292a37f4e41

i know the stuff in this thread is more of an 'ambient' focus, but easter everywhere always sounds great in the desert ime

They were mentioned before upthread, but last week I took a road trip through the desert and can confirm that this album is a playlist must.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5ZmZd6fRRQ

New Boxhead Ensemble!

https://boxheadensemble.bandcamp.com/album/ancient-music

This band from Tuscon is on tour and I'm feeling their wide open desert vibe:

https://compersionmusic.bandcamp.com/track/kitchen-mirror

Swell's 41

That's a favorite!

This JAB release is very wide, very open

https://johnalsobennett.bandcamp.com/album/out-there-in-the-middle-of-nowhere

that JAB record is incredible, love it.

w/o being too self-promo here, my band's stuff definitely fits into this zone

https://prairiewolfcf.bandcamp.com/album/prairiewolf

it does and it's good!

*looks up a few entries* Steve S I'm seeing that Compersion band playing at a venue called the Warehouse in SF next Wednesday but googling for it is impossible. (They're not talking about the bar out at Port Costa, are they?)

It is a uh... "low-key venue" that's been shut down a few times for obvious reasons.

I've only been 2x, Spiritual Cramp last year and then Fentanyl last month.

That said: not sure I feel posting the details on this thread, what is the best way to get a hold of you in a private manner?

How did I not hear about a new, 90 minute Boxhead Ensemble album? They strike me as the sweet spot for this thread. Listening now, and it's predictably gorgeous. I had no idea Michael Krassner now runs a pizza restaurant in Phoenix.

I live in Phoenix and it is a legitimately great pizza restaurant, I strongly recommend it!

That said: not sure I feel posting the details on this thread, what is the best way to get a hold of you in a private manner?

emailed ya... 🙊

Thank ya. In 'well that's irony' territory, though, I've suffered a slight sprain around my left knee so I'm mostly not moving for a few days, so hopefully next time!

Get well soon Ned. I'd happily wheel you around but the pavement in that neighborhood is particularly jagged.

I can guess!

What with one thing and another, I've barely listened to music in the last two weeks. To be a fresh lawn on which the new Boxhead Ensemble falls like the first leaves of autumn makes the whole thing entirely worth it.

loving this compersion track

Compersion were not only incredible live but were total IRL sweeties. <3

Compersion track is lovely. Making me think of 'Constant Craving', played by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Love the metal shirts, obvs (even if one is a Sade shirt, masquerading as a metal shirt).

I keep thinking about an 'ambient Americana' thread but I hate the name so much I can't bring myself to do it. Anyway, a couple of recent things on the Centripetal Force label would seem to fit here: a compilation of stuff called Of Ambience and Americana that's 'name your price on Bandcamp' (and has a track by Prairiewolf!): https://centripetalforcerecords.bandcamp.com/album/of-ambience-and-americana

And Luke Schneider's It Is Solved by Walking, which is one of those bizarre '$1000 for digital release', but is on Spotify: https://lukeschneider.bandcamp.com/album/it-is-solved-by-walking

Pretty sure I first heard about the new Michael Muller record on here but can't find it. Totally fits on this thread. Has a bunch of guests such as Chuck Johnson & Doug McCombs. It's on Deutsche Grammophon, randomly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg4mZAh7QPQ

he has been mentioned twice in this thread; otherwise not much love on this board for 'superproducer' Daniel Lanois.
That is from
Rockets, 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GXWHw5nnW8

heyyy, we've got a new record in this vein coming out next month ... https://prairiewolfcf.bandcamp.com/album/deep-time

i mean, look at the cover

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3964796239_10.jpg

Already pre-ordered! Was really happy to see that announcement in my inbox this morning.

Now, to work on you guys getting further east to tour. Say... Chicago?

thanks jon!

i think the midwest is maybe a spring 2025 possibility? i don't know how people make this stuff work.

in the meantime, this live tape from last week turned out great: https://archive.org/details/Prairiewolf2024-08-08

THIS BETTER BE GOOD.

(I've already heard it, it's good.)

:D

I was half kidding, but count me in when those Spring 2025 dates drop.