desolation wilderness
Reverb is so in right now. Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Grouper, everything Bradford and countless more. It never really went away, sure, but there’s something drawing people to small-songs-that-sound-big right now. And it ain’t just the weather.
No shame, no excuses: I first heard about Olympia, WA’s Desolation Wilderness from Pitchfork. The barrage of Forkcast’d items can be a bit dizzying, but something about the DW blurb put my mouse trigger finger on pause. It was probably the Clientele and Galaxie 500 references — I’m a predictable beast, honestly. Watching the hazy, strobe-filled video for “Come Over in Your Silver Car” and hearing the super soft, laidback shuffle was immediately, immensely satisfying. It was all round edges: big, beautiful and thousands of feet under water.
White Light Strobing, out now on K and anchored by “Come Over” (the strongest song), has so specific a sound it’s not even a genre study, it’s more like a sound study. Ya know, “Let’s take Joe Meek reverb and write some slow, sprawling twinklefests.” So it’s ten songs of that. And it’s great.
The Desolate guys are on a long van trip right now, and having seen ‘em last night in a small space, I can tell you with confidence: if you like it loud n’ pretty, they’re not to be missed.
“Reverb is so in right now.”
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True. Eighties new wave/underground radio-revivalism is fading out; Nineties shoegaze/lo-fi-revivalism is on the horizon.
BTW, anything favorably compared to The Clientele is going to get my attention. What a great band (and one that’s — despite what I said above — much more about an updated, and particularly English, Eighties-sound; I can listen to “6AM Morningside,” “Dreams of Leaving,” and “Losing Haringey,” among others, forever).