With its bright sounding guitar lines and prominent bass groove, ‘Pyramid of Djoser’, the lead track from Yawning Balch’s fourth opus, opens a little more forcefully than you’d possibly expect from a typical Yawning Balch recording. In many ways, its busier feel, evident even from its first few bars, comes closer to sounding more like a Yawning Man leftover. This doesn’t make it in any way bad, of course: for desert rock fans, the immediacy with which the quartet hit a rocky groove here creates something striking; something which, stylistically, sits at the pinnacle of desert rock coolness.
Even when things start to calm down just a little, somewhere around the four minute mark, Bill Stinson’s drums retain a great presence, and the way Gary Arce and Bob Balch weave shimmering guitar lines in and out of each other shares something that extant fans of Yawning Balch’s improvisations will absolutely love. By six minutes in, Arce takes more of a lead, and the interplay between his arcs of sound and a semi-distorted bass (courtesy of Mario Lalli) is impressive, making it more than clear that these musicians have spent years together honing their sound, and seem to know instinctively what each other is thinking. The continuing buzz of the bass and a more prominent guitar sound occasionally leans further towards a stoner aesthetic than classic desert rock, but regardless of any genre semantics, the huge sounding melody that gradually unfolds is absolutely terrific.
It’s so good that, once the groove makes a definite change at around ten minutes in, it initially feels like a slight disappointment. However, given a few bars to adjust, Lalli’s groove-laden bass sounds just as impressive, and with Stinson dropping a few massive drum fills beneath a howling guitar, there’s a feeling that the band are about to unveil something else that’s genuinely cool. …And, indeed, a gradual slide into a melody that’s a little mellower brings some classic sounding desert vibes. A slow rhythm allows the dual guitars to feel a little more atmospheric, and an eventual lead adds a slightly bluesy vibe, pulling everything a little closer to Yawning Balch’s earlier jams. The fuzzy blues unveils some pure magic from Lalli’s bass, and with a reverbed guitar lending even more of a psychedelic vibe, this sets a superb tone and feel in place for the remainder of a genuinely epic workout. Even when this is balanced by a little more of a groove for the climax, partly returning to the opening melody, it still gives the feeling of a genuine trippiness, and of musicians totally absorbed in the moment.
Offering a second piece clocking in at over twenty minutes, ‘Water Ritual’ comes far closer to recycling previous YB glories. With its instantly mellower sound and bluesy guitar lines underscored by shimmering tones, there’s far more of a desert rock sound influencing the recording. Lalli’s bass sits at the forefront, but it’s still the lead guitar that catches the ear overall, with semi-distorted, flowing notes weaving in and out of the bottom end groove, working a deep psych influence that suggests a melody that could go on forever. Change is inevitable, of course, and after working this huge melody for a full six minutes, the bass subsides to allow more interplay between the guitarists, and Balch’s repetitious lead work weaves in and out of Arce’s arcs of noise brilliantly, bringing something even more intricate to the table.
In many ways, it’s that second passage that brings ‘Water Ritual’s true highlights, but a final shift to introduce a few chopping rhythm guitars, a higher toned bassline bringing a slightly proggy feel, and with Stinson presenting a very 70s drum groove, really shouldn’t be overlooked. This, in itself, shows how naturally Yawning Balch’s improv style flows and changes, and with the arrival of some deep psych guitar lines, the number is able to fill its third act with some superb desert/stoner infused sounds that feel different enough to allow this lengthy number to feel as if it’s always moving forward. It’s testament to some great musicianship that Yawning Balch’s twenty minute epics never drag.
Despite any misgivings you may have regarding a punchier sounding opening, ‘Volume Four’ is worth sticking with. As this pair of twenty minute improvisations move along, the release starts to sound more like “classic” Yawning Balch, very much giving extant fans more of the sounds they love. There are times when bits of the material could be interchangeable with previous recordings, but this in itself shouldn’t be considered a negative trait. If anything, the fact that the YB material continues to be one hundred percent improvised but never becomes in any way dull is truly impressive. For those who’ve taken the trip this far, ‘Volume Four’ will be considered a more than worthy addition to the band’s catalogue.
May 2026