ALBUM REVIEW: Yawning Man - “Historical Graffiti”

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 18/08/2016
Label: Lay Bare Recordings

“Historical Graffiti” is a drug that calms the soul of the listener”

“Historical Graffiti” DD//LP track listing:

1). The Wind Cries Edalyn
2). Her Phantom Finger of Copenhagen
3). Naomi Crayola
4). The Secret Language of Elephants
5). Historical Graffiti

The Review:

This new Yawning Man album, “Historical Graffiti,” has been a long time coming. The last we heard from Gary Arce (Guitar), Mario Lalli (Bass), and Bill Stinson (drums) was in 2010, when they released “Nomadic Pursuits.” That album continued the story that “Vista Point” and “Rock Formations” before it told; life out in the Southern Californian desert is trippy. This happens to be a story we don’t mind hearing time and time again.

“Historical Graffiti” is in many ways a continuation to this story instead of a re-telling of it. That is to say that this album isn’t what we have come to expect from Yawning Man. Yes, the songs are still instrumental, orbiting around Arce’s fluid guitar creations by way of steady drumming and lush bass lines, but there’s more to the band this time. These five songs are excerpts from jams that Yawning Man did one late night in Buenos Aires with Sara Ryan, Adolfo Trepiana, and Malene Arce on the violin, bandaneon, and keyboard respectively.

At the album’s core, “Historical Graffiti” is still a Yawning Man album. But it’s the inclusion of these extra musicians – and instruments – that make the band sound freer than ever before. The songs are presumably based on free form jams and according the liner notes, all of the songs were recorded in one night, in one go.

The lazy drum and bass lead-in to the album’s opening track “The Wind Cries Edalyn” immediately sets the tone. Things will be low key this time around. The percussion won’t be hit too hard and the general tempo in the songs will be kept to that of a sunny Sunday afternoon by the swimming pool. Arce, Lalli, and Stinson lead the proceedings, all the while offering Ryan, Trepiana, and Malene plenty of room to dive in swim through the airwaves.

Space is given to each other and space is taken, and there’s not a single moment in which one of these band members feels overlooked. These are jams done by musicians who play with and into each other, feeding off of a desire to get acquainted on a musical level. The dreamy sway of each individual track is proof that these six musicians took their time and enjoyed identifying with each other on this level. After all, this collaboration might a one-off, so why rush things?

Each song is comfortable, like hanging in a tire swing and feeling the cool breeze to blow through your hair. Troubles are forgotten while these songs fade in and out of the jams they came from, calming the heart rate and allowing the mind to drift. There isn’t one song on here that feels rushed. Even in “Naomi Krayoli,” when the album’s groove gets kicked up a notch, there is no push and no finish line, just exploration of the mind and soul using music as a vessel to do so.

The addition of extra instruments wasn’t a necessary step for Yawning Man to take but the results of them taking it are sublime. By expanding their set up, Yawning Man has made an album brimming with spiritual jams that go a long way in helping the listener expand their mind. All of these extra elements and how they have been put to use add depth to the melodies, resulting in a drug that calms the soul of the listener.

“Historical Graffiti” is available here

Band info: facebook || bandcamp

FFO: Fatson Jetson, Desert Sessions, Ten East, Sons of Alpha Centauri

Live Review: Ten East + Fatso Jetson + Yawning Man @ De Hip, Deventer, Netherlands. 13/2/2015

Deventer is a Dutch city with an abnormally high crime rate and home to the Charles Dickens Festival. The city is also has a fantastic store that not only sells all sorts of games but also has an impressive vinyl selection to drool over. What draws me back to the city time and time again is that I stumble upon something unexpected with each visit. Last Friday, when I found myself in the basement of De Hip, it was no different. It’s brick walls were covered by posters of scantily clad women and I was forced to stand behind a pillar erected in front of the stage drinking miniature brewskies. But with Ten East, Fatso Jetson, and Yawning Man providing the evening’s entertainment, the setting became moot.

Ten East, a band melding Gary Arce and Bill Stinson from Yawning Man with Pieter Holkenborg and Erik Harbers from Automatic Sam, started the evening off a little earlier than advertised. Because I’m not one to show up to places any earlier than necessary, I missed most of their set. I was pretty bummed out about this and It took me about a song to get over this fact. Luckily the band was able to convince me to free my mind in their second song, which was exactly what you would have expected from this combination; watery guitars from stage right and a slightly more aggressive counterpart over at stage left all held together by Stinson and Harbers with automatic ease.

When Ten East finished, my new favorite drummer Tony Tornay took to the stage with Mr. Lalli and his son, Dino. In these circles, what I’m about to say is probably blasphemous but here goes, I don’t actually like Fatso Jetson that much. The funny thing about this, though, is that I’ve seen them live three times and every time they absolutely, one-hundred percent, kill it. Where songs like “Bored Stiff” don’t do much for me on record, in a live setting they burst open at the seams. The same goes for the surf-punk shuffle of “Salt Chunk Mary’s” and the way Mario and his son shot lead vocals back and forth to each other in “Swollen Offering,” made for one helluva impact. So once again, Fatso Jetson showed me that apparently I’m wrong about not digging their records and I’m cool with that.

Now that Fatso Jetson had turned up the temperature to desert-like levels, the moment was ripe for Yawning Man to take their turn at melting minds. Their set kicked off with “Catamaran” and continued to ascend from there. The band touched on “Rock Formations” just as much as “Nomadic Pursuits” and even treated us to a 'Waterways' jam. Somewhere during this hour of humid desert rock, Yawning Man shared a new tune called “The Wind Cries Riley Lynn” (did I hear that right?). Stylistically this song used “Nomadic Pursuits” as a point of departure, slowly drifting along with a thumpy bass line and fluid guitar work. Elements of Brant Bjork’s “Jalamanta” sprung up here and there and if that’s the direction the band is going in, then that new album of their’s better come sooner than later.

All in all a good night. The Yawning Man/Fatso Jetson combination is a recipe for guaranteed good time jams. Though these bands fall into two different genres they seem to cater just fine to the public, regardless who they are there to see.  

Words By: Victor van Ommen