"wide open desert music" S/D

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.

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).