REVIEW: Desert Sessions, "Volumes 1 & 2"

first appeared in The Rocket, 3/11/98
by Joe Ehrbar


The heat can do strange things to the mind. So can isolation and wide-open spaces. Now think of how those circumstances can affect music. That's probably what ex-Kyuss, present Well Water Conspiracy guitarist Josh Homme imagined when he conceived the idea for Desert Sessions. Desert Sessions is a studio collaboration directed by Homme that features a revolving cast of musicians recording in a studio in Joshua Tree, California--the desert.

For Volumes 1&2, the Desert Sessions lineup includes Homme, ex-Soundgardener/present Hater Ben Shepherd, ex-Monster Magnet/current Well Water Conspirator John McBain, ex-Kyuss/present Fu Manchu guitarist Brant Bjork and ex-Wool singer/guitarist Pete Stahl. From the sounds of it, one might expect Desert Sessions to be a power-riff blowout. Indeed, the riffs are there in force on this seven-song album, but they aren't overpowering, psychedelic more like it. Blame it on the sun or blame it on the marijuana. One also might expect Desert Sessions to be too ambitious a project that would buckle under the force of the project's numerous egos. However, the collaborators have more important things on their minds, like letting themselves be consumed and influenced by the surrounding elements, and in turn, finding out what the desert sounds like. Though the Desert Sessions are still in the process of discovering those sounds (Homme has six volumes planned), so far they're on the right track. Volumes 1& 2--available as two 10-inches or one CD--is a mish-mash of instrumentals and vocal-driven rock guiding the listener through vivid sonic journey of the California Desert. "Girl Boy Tom" seeks out deep shadowy valleys and fault lines at dusk. The dusty "Robotic Lunch" rolls wearily onward across sun-baked terrain. "Johnny the Boy" staggers and succumbs to disorienting heat exhaustion. And "Monkey in the Middle" soars quietly but purposefully in the red sky of the afternoon. Like instrumental explorers Pell Mell, the Desert Sessions take you on a journey, one laden with vivid imagery. Assuming you have the imagination to follow them, this album offers one of the best aural trips in the rock.


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