Yawning Balch first drew my attention with its description-an album created during a trip to Joshua Tree, without almost any plan for how the recording would go. Joshua Tree itself seems the perfect place for such a creation, an otherworldly expanse of wacky nature that is teeming with inspiration. A place where college students and adults alike go to frolic and experience their first 'shroom trip.
Dreaming With Eyes Open is a perfect first song, with cavernous, looping guitar riffs whose repetition feels almost hypnotic. Racking up at 21 minutes, the song gets a bit derivative, leaving a bit of a desire for some shift in energy. However, this repetition also gives the listener an element of calming anxiety as they wait for a theoretical change while getting sucked into soothing echoes.
Cemetery Glitter is a bit darker and more ominous, almost as if recorded as the sun began to set and the misty night set in. Midway through the song, heavier drum beats kick in and make the song more intense, especially given its alien-like vibes and reverberations.
The shortest of the three tracks, Low Pressure Valley still offers the same vibes of the other two, with a strong beat eliciting a scene of walking eons in the desert without any fixed destination. The sound in this song is especially cool because it feels as if sounds are bouncing off walls in every direction, causing some feelings of confusion and disorientation. It is more jammy, a bit similar to sitting in the Mos Eisley cantina, but during a night of low energy and moods.
It is worth checking out at least the website itself as the design and setup is pretty sick. Not only that, but the length of the tracks makes the music a good background when doing some work that requires concentration.
-Cogitating Punker
