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Orquesta
del Desierto "dos"
Reviews:
The
Post & Courier, Metal Nightmare
Magazine, The Sound Monitor, Aversionline
...
SOUND
OFF
BY DEVIN GRANT
Special to The Post and Courier [www]
ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO "DOS" (METEORCITY.COM)
One might not expect Palm Springs, Calif., to be the home of a decent
rock band, but that is in fact the locale that spawned acts such as Kyuss
and Queens of the Stone Age.
Both acts have enjoyed success in the alternative rock world, and now
another Palm Springs band is ready to bust out in a big (albeit slightly
different) way. Orquesta del Desierto is actually the latest in the growing
trend of mutually admiring musicians hooking up with one another to make
more sweet music. OdD began with songwriter Dandy Brown, drummer Alfredo
Hernandez (who has played with Kyuss and QOTSA), guitarist Mario Lalli
(formerly of Fatso Jetson), and singer Pete Stahl (who played with Dave
Grohl in Scream, way back when).
The interesting thing about OdD is that most of the guitar work heard
from the band is acoustic. With that said, these guys certainly know how
to dispel the notion that acoustic guitars are just for granola-munching
folk
singers. Remember that scene in "Animal House" when John Belushi's
character grabs the acoustic guitar from that sensitive lad and bashes
it to splinters? If Riley or Lalli had been there in Belushi's place,
they would have probably grabbed that guitar and demonstrated to the softie
that heavier things are possible by actually playing the instrument.
OdD's second release, "Dos," is noticeably mellower than its
self-titled debut, but the band still finds ways to convey power through
its music. Two different drummers, Adam Maples and Pete Davidson, replace
Hernandez. Other musicians, most notably Stephen Brodsky, drop in for
guest appearances. Check out tracks such as "Quick to Disperse"
and "What in the World," which rock without being overwhelming.
Several tracks even include a nice horn section that adds a Southwestern
mariachi sort of groove to the proceedings. Particularly good is "Sleeping
the Dream," a tranquil, plaintive tune that closes the CD perfectly.
"Dos" is a deceptively mellow CD from a band that deserves to
get a little more widespread recognition. (B+)
Metal
Nightmare Magazine [www]
- Tom Wren
ORQUESTA
DEL DESIERTO "DOS"
2004 METEORCITY
It's not often that I do a review on something outside of the metal or
even rock genres and subgenres. But ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO is one of those
worthy exceptions. What we've got here is members of HERMANO, EARTHLINGS?,
FATSO JETSON, and GOATSNAKE who came together to create music outside
of the boundaries of anything else they'd done before. The result is something
that has the spirit of late 60s and early 70s rock, yet without the power
of several stacks of Marshall amplifiers behind them. The latter days
of THE BEATLES also definitely play a large part in their joyous sound.
Each song is a separate work of art, yet each complements the other and
are the pieces to an album length puzzle. I'm at a loss for words to try
to describe the sound of this band, but that's because my musical vocabulary
tends to be limited to words along the lines of "brutal,"
"intense," "insanity," or "total thrashing madness."
And those are words that describe everything that ORQUESTA DEL DESIERTO
is not. Those of you into the stoner side of things but with perhaps also
a liking for folk rock, this band is for you.
The
Sound Monitor [www]
by Kevin McHugh
Orquesta
del Desierto "dos" [Alone Records/The Stone Circle]
The European
version of this album, sporting a somewhat different song selection and
released on the Stone Circle label, has been out for a month or so. Finally,
us deprived (yes, that is an "i") North Americans can sink
our teeth into this savory slice of desert goodness, and its not a minute
too soon. Orquesta del Desierto continue to push the limits of what we
consider "stoner" rock to be, and in the process they've found
a new
maturity to add to the mix. I can easily picture them performing this
music in 20 or 30 years time, and digging it just as much as they do now.
For one thing, there's a real synergy in songwriting and performance going
on here. They're still everything you remember from the first album, but
far more refined and - to be blunt about it - better. I imagine that the
energy pouring off of these desert community notables, such as Goatsnake
and Earthlings? singer Pete Stahl, Fatso Jetson's Mario Lalli, Mark Engel
(who sometimes channels the spirit of Syd Barrett, heh heh), and
Earthlings?' drummer Adam "The Meters Rule!" Maples, could power
an electrical substation all on its own. There's creativity galore, a
controlled chaos that somehow forms lots of accessible, even radio-friendly
songs with a left-handed spiritual vibe, the kind that often surfaces
with desert brother Chris Goss and Masters of Reality. That's the type
of thing that happens at the recording venue, Rancho de la Luna, 'cause
its a place
where its easy to plug into the spirit of exploration. And while we're
at it, lets not forget to note the overwhelming contribution of songwriter
Dandy Brown. This project is largely his vision.
Of course you know by now not to expect Sabbathy doom or stoneriffic goodness
a la Dozer from the Orquesta. Despite the pedigrees of the above-referenced
musos, the music on Dos is more like some left-field AM desert radio station
in 1971: You'll hear mariachi horns, blues, latin beats, and ensemble
acoustic guitars. It all gels into something that hooks you in and rocks
out like the first day of summer. It's mellow and fun, but
its not throw-away or trivial. From a rock perspective, everyone throws
in their $.02, even if its not the $.02 you're accustomed to. But if you're
down with '60s psych such as Pink Floyd's Gilmour in '68, Zeppelin
unplugged, rockabilly swing, Los Lobos, Neil Young, The Beatles, or Mark
Lanegan on an overdose of serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, then you'll
dig this. This one blurs genres as it pushes your happy buttons, all the
while
floating by like a summer breeze. I always thought Brant Bjork's Jalamanta
was the leader in that realm, but its time to add another classic album
to that very short list. I know its only January, but these timeless tunes
will certainly end up on many a top 10 list in a year's time. Cue it up
and have a dose of warm desert air while the arctic wind blows outside.
www.AVERSIONLINE.com
[www]
- Andrew Westerhouse
Orquesta del Desierto "Dos"
7/10 - [MeteorCity]
Whew, okay. I'm gonna rant for a minute or two here, so you've been warned.
Alright, the first track on this thing features a guest appearance by
Stephen Brodsky (Cave In), I don't know what he does, but he's credited
with having a hand in writing the song, and motherfucker should that song
not be the opening cut on this CD. Shit, it shouldn't be on the CD at
all, because it fucking sucks. It's an inexcusably horrible song. I can't
even
put into words how repulsed I thought I was going to be by this entire
CD based on that insanely horrific opening track. However, the rest of
the tracks are entirely different, far better, and quite good. So the
question
remains: Why the fuck is that hideous piece of trash introducing an otherwise
interesting and enjoyable set of songs? Anyway, this band features Pete
Stahl (Goatsnake) on vocals, along with contributions from numerous guitar
players (some of whom also handle other instrumentation), and two drummers.
So the end result is a mishmash of the core of usual instruments along
with dashes of organ, piano, additional percussion,
trumpet, and saxophone. It's sort of bluesy rock with some subtle little
southern twangs and country influences, and a laidback sort of melody.
Not bad. I still think Stahl sounds a lot like the dude from The Cult,
but more suited for this type of music. He's a great singer. As far as
standouts, "Summer" is nice and calm with acoustic guitars and
just an all around moving flow; "Over Here" is a darker instrumental
with lots of sustained guitars and layering, a bit brighter in tone but
more sinister atmospherically; and then "Sleeping the Dream"
is driven by vocals with piano and such taking a more central role than
percussion or guitars, and the composition is
fucking amazingly emotional. Awesome. "What in the World" is
the only other terrible song on the entire CD, and coincidentally it's
the only other track that features horns and a more upbeat rhythm. It's
not nearly as
obnoxious as "Life Without Color" (the dreaded first song),
but still pretty worthless, especially that bullshit Phish sounding solo.
This fucker does have great production, though. Everything is totally
natural and warm,
the mix is clear as day. I can't complain! The layout's alright. I actually
like the front cover, and for the most part the color scheme of the desert
images throughout the booklet remains consistent. However, a lot
of the photographs are of a fairly poor quality, and I'm not into the
typeface used for the text. It's legible, but it's made to look like handwriting
and it has a weird sort of comic book-ish look in a way, it doesn't really
fir the tone of the record. The lyrics are somewhat contemplative personal
journeys often dealing with relationships and such. Not my thing on some
levels, but they're not that bad either. "Hang on to someday. And
know it won't be long until you stand forever with silence all around.
Someday may be too late." I really like 90% of this a lot. I would
certainly recommend this to fans of rock music that want something a little
more relaxed and unusual. Just skip that first track. I'm telling you,
it's murder.
-- Running time - 37:36, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Summer, Over Here, Someday, Sleeping the Dream]
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