YAWNING MAN (Rock Formations) LP/CD
I'm very careful with superlatives like 'perfect', but in the case of "Rock Formations" I have the deep urge to use this word. Yes, this is a perfect album, especially for the current hot summer days. But at first, a few words about YAWNING MAN, a band that was born in the mid-80's where they used to play some of those legendary generator shows in the desert. Maybe some of you associate this parties to bands like Kyuss f.e., and I can tell you, that you're on the right track. YAWNING MAN belong definitely to one of the main inspirations for musicians like Brant Björk or John Garcia, who used to see the band rehearsing when they were teenagers. The original line-up of the band was Mario Lalli and his cousin Larry as well as guitarist Gary Ace and drummer Alfredo Hernandez, who was also member of Kyuss, Ché and Queens Of The Stone Age and this is their first (!) album for the Spanish label Alone Records. The line-up is still the same as nineteen years ago, apart of the fact that Larry Lalli had left the band, and due to the reason that YAWNING MAN only did manage to record a couple of demos in the late 80's, I have no chance to compare "Rock Formations" to previous recordings.
To fill this gap, Alone Records will be releasing their older material on a double CD set in late 2005 so that the complete musical catalogue of the band will be available for the public. A great idea, but at first it's time to check out this album, that delivers an awesome instrumental musical blend between surf, folk, latin, and instrumental rock. Maybe that sounds a little bit strange , but you can trust me that the result is absolutely brilliant and exciting at once. The entire sounds is very uplifting and filled with a positive spirit, without becoming cheesy, and Gary Ace is doing a lot of magic things with his guitar. He's using a very psychedelic guitar-tone, that is always in motion and drips like honey from the stacks, while A. Hernandez and M.Lalli are building a strong and varied rhythmical backbone. Both player enrich the entire sound with great ideas, and are more than 'just' a simple rhythm section. Another great aspect about their music is, that they are an instrumental outfit, because a singer would destroy the music immediately. While some other instrumental rock bands are sounding as if they have just forgotten to invite their singer to the recording sessions, YAWNING MAN have written songs, where one can hear and feel, that they never spend one thought about teaming-up with a lead-vocalist. And I hope, they won't change that in the future! Well, I had expected a very interesting album from this band, but I didn't thought, that it would become one of my favourite albums of 2005. The excellent transparent production underlines the warm and floating music, and this time "desert rock" is an appropriate term for this album, because for me it's more about the overall spiritual summer vibe, comparable with what Orquesta Del Desierto have captured, than just playing heavy fuzzrock. So, dear reader, if you have a good musical taste and you want to check out a highly interesting album, than "Rock Formations" will do it for you. The vinyl-edition comes up with a gatefold sleeve, and later this year Alone Records will release a new YAWNING MAN ep, entitled "Pothead". Here's a new fan, and I'm looking forward to it!
(KK)