By: Andrew Field
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 14/06/2019
Label: Heavy Psych Sounds
What you have here is sublimely crafted
and utterly beautiful musical moments which don’t outstay their welcome and
leave you wanting more.
‘Macedonian
Lines’ CD//DD//LP
track listing:
1. Virtual Funeral
2. Macedonian Lines
3. Melancholy Sadie
4. Bowie
5. I'm Not An Indian (But I Play One On TV)
6. I Make Weird Choices
The Review:
It
has often been said that bands who stick around forever eventually lose some or
all of their creative pulse and start churning out music of ever-decreasing
relevance and quality. That claim can be laid at the feet of so many acts: from
the Rolling
Stones to Helmet and Aerosmith to Metallica.
Those groups might remain incendiary in a live setting but let’s be honest –
when was the last time you listened to “A
Bigger Bang”, “Dead to The World”, “Music from Another Dimension” or “Hardwired…. To Self-Destruct?”
Kudos
then to Yawning
Man for turning that theory on its head by brewing up their best
works thirty-odd years into their musical journey. Those generator parties
outside La Quinta in the Californian desert in the mid-1980s must feel like a
long time ago to sonic travellers Mario Lalli and Garcy Arce, but the spirit of
those events can still be found deep within the grooves of “Macedonian Lines”.
If
their stunning 2016 third album “Historical
Graffiti” started a purple patch, last year’s “The Revolt Against Tired Noises” consolidated their
reputation as masters of their art. Ambient and achingly melancholy, it tingled
and shone and soared and sounded like heaven. “Macedonian Lines” wisely doesn’t try to trump it. There was
no point them trying: nothing will ever better “Black Kite” which
opened that 2018 opus.
On
this new record the trio take their “less is more” approach one step further:
from the flab-free 31-minute running time to the effortless ease with which
these six tracks roll and undulate without any unnecessary excess. Whilst all
the Yawning
Man trademarks are present and correct, “Macedonian Lines” belongs to four-stringer Mario Lalli. His
bass owns this album, underpinning everything. On seven-minute opening cut “Virtual
Funeral” Gary Arce’s instantly familiar guitar progressions are
anchored by Lalli’s fat, fuzzed bassline and from there on his presence
dominates the album’s sound.
The
title track reeks of wide-open spaces and is pure musical cinema, whilst “Melancholy
Sadie”’s echo-drenched sweet gloop of multi-tracked, picked guitar
notes builds into a thick and filling sonic melange. An album highlight is “I’m
Not A Real Indian”’s elegiac
final 50-second sprint, which motors along and will sound fantastic this summer
with the top down on a mid-American highway. It’s the kind of musical moment
you don’t ever want to end.
They
leave the best to last. Final cut “I Make Weird Choices” is a
monster, gliding along until it’s explosive coda before fading into an
unassuming close which neatly defines everything that’s great about Yawning Man.
Lalli’s rumbling, guttural bass is the perfect counterpoint to Arce’s lush
soloing, with Bill Stinson’s subtle drum work giving both of them acres of room
to breathe. No showing off, just sublimely crafted and utterly beautiful
musical moments which don’t outstay their welcome and leave you wanting more.
When
“Macedonian Lines” ends, all
you want to do is listen to more Yawning Man because nothing else will do. And
that is why this defining, vital band is as important today as it was way back
in 1986. Long may they reign.
‘Macedonian Lines’
is available
HERE
