ALBUM REVIEW: Volume One – Yawning Balch
FU MANCHU’s Bob Balch ventured out to Joshua Tree in November 2022 for a few days to jam out some riffs with some friends, the trio of Gary Arce, Billy Cordell and Bill Stinson who make up the seminal desert rock band YAWNING MAN. While the desert may not have been at its hottest, it still contained its ethereal vibes, and on that day its mystical and potent magic helped create something beautifully unexpected. Given that YAWNING MAN have also released their highly anticipated new album Long Walk Of The Navajo this year, they truly are flexing their creative muscles with this collaboration.
In just five hours the quartet had jammed out enough material for two albums. Inspired by the heat of the desert and the pioneering psychedelia that both Balch and YAWNING MAN specialise in, the now named YAWNING BALCH is a truly unique project. In what is a dream collaboration as two cornerstones of the desert rock scene come together, YAWNING BALCH have released the first part of their five-hour jam with their debut release Volume One, which is a truly intoxicating and mind-expanding album.
Volume One is the first part of a relaxingly dreamy, psychedelic, post-rock instrumental journey. Whilst there were no expectations or plans from either side going into this project (apart from experimenting with a plethora of guitar pedals), the plug in and play mentality that YAWNING BALCH adopt has yielded something magical. It could be argued that this is psychedelic music in its rawest and most natural form, free flowing and uninhibited.
Over the course of the album YAWNING BALCH explore a wide variety of soundscapes and atmospheres that capture your imagination. With a bountiful supply of kaleidoscopic colour, shifting shapes and cosmological sounds, it becomes so easy to be completely enraptured by the far out nature of the album. The guitar chemistry between Balch and Arce is tangible as they bounce off each other, weaving intricate psychedelic solos as they go. The steady bass grooves provided by Cordell keep the lofty psychedelia grounded, while Stinson’s evolving rhythms drive the album forward.
For the majority of the album you feel as if you are peacefully floating over the desert, traversing with ease over its sun-baked ground and rugged terrain. A blissful calm washes over you as the wildlife around you passes you by and the clouds drift whimsically in the sky. Spaced out imagery aside, YAWNING BALCH have created a beautiful, calm space to sit and let your thoughts evaporate into thin air. Yet Volume One also doesn’t sit still, it constantly evolves as it progresses but it does so in a gentle manner.
In essence, Volume One is nothing but pure, instinctual musical emotions nomadically wandering into the atmosphere. It’s a thoroughly refreshing experience, very much a less is more scenario – there’s nothing overcomplicated here. Nothing to distract you, it is an album tangibly grounded in the present and you have to listen to it in that way to get the most out of it. The musical cohesion and chemistry between the members of YAWNING BALCH is magical and serves to exemplify what you can do just by jamming things out with no expectations.
Dreaming With Eyes Open opens up the album, and for all intents and purposes it is a 21-minute lucid dream. It is one of those psych tracks that makes you want to kick back in the sun and live presently and vicariously through the meandering solos and melodies that emerge as the song progresses. You can feel the magical vibrations of the desert coursing through this song, and you don’t have to be 18 minutes in to realise what you’re listening to is pretty special.
This is followed by the glimmering and shimmering Cemetery Glitter. Only slightly shorter than the opening track, this is where Volume One really enters into a blissful dream state. Melodies and counter melodies swirl around you with synth like sounds, all rooted down by the deep, warm and thick bass grooves. Small moments of tension appear to keep the track interesting, but by this point you’re already completely and utterly lost in the album’s calming flow. The final track Low Pressure Valley takes its time to build but as it glimmers it gently brings you back down to earth and you can feel the coolness of a desert evening. A deeply reflective track, you feel the most peaceful here and then the track slowly fades out leaving you in your present calm.
Despite only being three tracks, Volume One has so much to offer yet leaves you eagerly anticipating Volume Two of the YAWNING BALCH collaboration. This is a truly wonderful collaboration and unlike anything we’ve heard from Balch or YAWNING MAN; it’s an album that needs to be experienced as it can put your soul at ease.
Rating: 9/10
Volume One is set for release on July 7th via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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