Nomadic Pursuits
By Yawning Man
| . | . | . | . |
| |||||||||||||||||||
Track listing
- 1 Camel Tow 5:02
- 2 Sand Whip 6:54
- 3 Far-Off Adventure 8:28
- 4 Blue Foam 6:42
- 5 Ground Swell 6:16
- 6 Camel Tow Too 5:00
- 7 Laster Arte 4:28
- Total length: 42:50
Rate/Catalog
Catalog
Set listening
Review
To rate, slide your finger across the stars from left to right.
2 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
-
Nomadic Pursuits [p] Digipak
-
Nomadic Pursuits 33 rpm
3 Reviews
After the near great Rock Formations I was pretty disappointed in this. More lo-fi, more distortion, more stoner rock, more post rock, more jamming, less tunes. Those aren't bad ingredients, but this isn't much different from hundreds of other bands, and you can't say that about their debut.
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
As the other review on this page might have informed you, Yawning Man are never going to win any awards for the diversity of their musical content. Depending on your temperament, this might drive you nuts or it might put a big smile on your face. Regardless, enthusiasts of stoner rock, desert rock, and instrumental rock (or so-called post-rock) of all stripes owe it to themselves to at least familiarize themselves with these pioneers of the scene.
If so much of the stoner/desert rock lot worship at the altar of Black Sabbath under the delirious influence of the desert sun, then these instrumental jams have their eyes fixed on the ghost moon of the twilight as the sun sets. No slowed-down, sludged-out blues riffing here. The guitar distortion has more of a delicious overdriven jazzmaster vibe than a Gibson thickness. There is a variation-on-a-theme style of instrumental jamming here, where they take a basic pattern and draw everything that they can out of it. The bass and drums are nimble without being busy, and an ever present reverb-drenched lead guitar line at the higher registers pushing things into space. There's almost a post-rock thing going on, but there's none of the build-and-release type of structure so common to that genre. Yawning Man are particularly good at bringing out the interesting qualities endemic to a musical theme, be it a rhythm, melody, or bassline, without imposing any external template on the piece's structure.
This album is a step-up on their previous album, Rock Formations, simply because the melodies and rhythms here are more memorable and vibrant to my ear. With that said, it's telling that this band exclusively played live for ~20 years before releasing any studio recordings. There's a definite level on which their ownmost vibe just doesn't make it onto the studio album format, but this is effective at reactivating the feel of their live shows, which I would recommend anyone check out if they get the chance.
If so much of the stoner/desert rock lot worship at the altar of Black Sabbath under the delirious influence of the desert sun, then these instrumental jams have their eyes fixed on the ghost moon of the twilight as the sun sets. No slowed-down, sludged-out blues riffing here. The guitar distortion has more of a delicious overdriven jazzmaster vibe than a Gibson thickness. There is a variation-on-a-theme style of instrumental jamming here, where they take a basic pattern and draw everything that they can out of it. The bass and drums are nimble without being busy, and an ever present reverb-drenched lead guitar line at the higher registers pushing things into space. There's almost a post-rock thing going on, but there's none of the build-and-release type of structure so common to that genre. Yawning Man are particularly good at bringing out the interesting qualities endemic to a musical theme, be it a rhythm, melody, or bassline, without imposing any external template on the piece's structure.
This album is a step-up on their previous album, Rock Formations, simply because the melodies and rhythms here are more memorable and vibrant to my ear. With that said, it's telling that this band exclusively played live for ~20 years before releasing any studio recordings. There's a definite level on which their ownmost vibe just doesn't make it onto the studio album format, but this is effective at reactivating the feel of their live shows, which I would recommend anyone check out if they get the chance.
Published
Same stuff as they did all the years.
Published
ADVERTISEMENT
Votes are used to help determine the most interesting content on RYM.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term.
Vote down content which breaks the rules.
Catalog
9 Feb 2024
25 Sep 2023
-
1
Camel Tow
-
2
Sand Whip
-
3
Far-Off Adventure
-
4
Blue Foam
-
5
Ground Swell
-
6
Camel Tow Too
-
7
Laster Arte
9 Aug 2023
27 Jul 2023
18 Jul 2023
17 Jul 2023
24 Jun 2023
17 Jun 2023
11 Apr 2023
11 Feb 2023
6 Dec 2022
27 Oct 2022
11 Jul 2022
27 Sep 2021
-
1
Camel Tow
-
2
Sand Whip
-
3
Far-Off Adventure
-
4
Blue Foam
-
5
Ground Swell
-
6
Camel Tow Too
-
7
Laster Arte
11 Aug 2021
Contributions
Log in to submit a correction or upload art for this release