Yawning Sons really does feel like the next logical step for Gary Arce who is carving out an increasingly interesting niche on the outer edges of the stoner rock genre. Arce’s music is not about the bottom end boom of Sabbath riffs, rather it’s about the desert twang, about dreamy mesmirising improvised guitar that sweeps out majestically across the wide open spaces. With Yawning Man, Ten East and Dark Tooth Encounter he has continued to craft this highly emotive and evocative guitar based instrumental music with these incredibly expressive riffs that possess a dreamy languid feel. This project sees him hopping a plane and hooking up with English outfit Sons of Alpha Centauri. At first he was to merely produce their album, yet after they had a jam they discovered a unique common ground that was too good to pass up. It’s more of a softer gentler album than any of his aforementioned projects, though it does share some dreamy links with Dark Tooth Encounter. Perhaps the biggest departure is the presence of vocals on three of the seven tracks courtesy of Desert Sessions legends Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson) and Scott Redder (Kyuss), also from Wendy Rae Flower (Mark Lanegan Band/ Unkle), who’s turn on the opener Ghostship – Deadwater takes it into the territory of UK Indie shoegazer’s Lush. This is part of the joy of Ceremony to the Sunset, the softer edges and lush textures drift effortlessly from atmospheric film soundtrack territory to psych rock. It’s an album that just flows over you, an escape, almost a mystery, where once it’s finished it’s almost impossible to recall what exactly just happened.
Bob Baker Fish
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