The first two albums by Yawning Balch – the side project featuring members of Yawning Man with Fu Manchu guitarist Bob Balch – yielded some fabulous music. The lengthy, improvised jams filled a pair of records with brilliant, almost ambient desert rock sounds; a whole world of sonic textures that really capture a moment, but really allow listener to be really drawn in by the band’s almost cinematic qualities.
The two recordings that form the basis of ‘Volume Three’ were culled from a second jam session, which allegedly resulted in five hours’ worth of tapes. In some ways, with something so…loose, it’s possibly hard to ascertain which bits are worth keeping, or at least which bits “work” best for an outside audience, but the sounds captured on ‘Volume Three’ are very much on a par with those shared on the earlier discs.
Presenting two side long pieces, this immediately feels like a release designed for vinyl. On side one, ‘Taos Hum’ actually wastes no time in presenting a huge melody. The way it fades in to encounter guitarist Gary Arce and company just about to hit upon one of their finest riffs gives away the fact that this twenty minute soundscape has been culled from a much larger piece, but much like the jams that filled Peter Green’s ‘End of The Game’ back in 1970, after about thirty seconds, everything feels natural, and actually as if the melody was meant to be shared in this way. Almost from the get go, the riff shared is more aggressive than parts of the first two recordings, but that isn’t to say it’s without atmosphere. Throughout the first three minutes, a tight drum and bass lay down a solid groove, and Balch weaves in and out with a huge stoner infused sound, but in keeping with previous YB work, finds a sweet spot between the psychedelic and bluesy for his main tone. Just after the three minute mark, things slide a touch closer to deep psych, since some of the dominant guitar work steps back to reveal a cool sounding lead bass, and this is subsequently joined by a second guitar part offering tonal arcs, adding a trippy drone which allows the bass to continue to take the lead. Then, with one of the guitars throwing out bright chords, the piece shares a slightly different kind of melody; one which represents some of the the band’s most forthright to date, but again, without losing sense of the otherworldly that has sat at the heart of Yawning Balch’s best work.
This louder jam is kept in place for over ten minutes. Balch shifts between different guitar melodies to keep things interesting, but it really comes into its own around the ten minute mark when he and Arce make even more of a play of weaving their improvised lines together, and drummer Bill Stinson latches onto a harder rhythm. For the last five minutes, everything slows somewhat, which pushes bassist Mario Lalli further into the spotlight, showing that this is a wholly collaborative affair. Although the bulk of this twenty minute piece suggests things aren’t going to go into full on tripped out mode, worry not… ‘Winter Window’ – filling side two – goes a little deeper into an ambient/desert infused soundtrack, feeling a little more like a throwback to some of the key moments on the brilliant ‘Volume One’.
The fourteen minute piece begins with echoing guitar sounds, where Balch and Arce offer gentle lead work, offset by the use of delay pedals. Joining the repetitive, desert imbibed sound, Lalli’s bass drops in with a few huge, fuzzy notes, which punctuate the slow burning riff without killing the mood. Holding it together, Stinson adds a tribal rhythm, which pushes everything forward, albeit very slowly. After four minutes, the bass becomes a little fuller, though never takes an aggressive stance; after five minutes, the quartet sound as if they’re channelling a post-Syd, pre-’Obscured By Clouds’ Pink Floyd to the point where the jam that emerges around the six minutes owes a massive debt to the mighty ‘Echoes’. The rhythm section, especially, appear to be channelling something Floydian, even though the guitar work is very much of the Yawning Balch school of atmosphere driven, slightly distorted psych. Experiencing everything together is to hear something special, and despite ‘Taos Hum’s slightly more forthright feel, this is classic, classic desert rock, every bit as good as the jams from the earlier Yawning Balch discs. Even when there’s a move into something funkier at around ten minutes in, the twin guitars continue to plough a rich vein of deep psych that’ll be great for late night listening.
If you’ve spent time with the first two volumes of Yawning Balch’s improvised soundscapes, you’ll have more than a good idea of what kind of trip you’re going to embark on here. The twin guitar work from Arce and Balch continues to deliver the best in stoner inspired, prog-ish haziness, and the rhythm section seems to know, pretty much instinctively, when to pull back to give everything even more atmosphere. There are a few more aggressive sounds creeping in this time around, but the pair of extended workouts work brilliantly together, often feeling like two halves of a whole. Even with a few harder edges present, the material is never about true immediacy; this is about giving stoner rock fans something to lose themselves in over time – and on that score,‘Volume Three’ is a very enjoyable listen.
February 2025