The geographically-scattered experimental rock super group, Winged Wheel, has remerged with a driving new LP rich with surreal ear candy and alien kosmische atmospherics.

Made up of Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint and co-owner of the legendary Tubby’s in Kingston, NY), Matthew J. Rolin (Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), Winged Wheel rolls down more esoteric roads than most jam-centric bands, with elements of noise rock, Krautrock and shoegaze entering into their improv-heavy sets and records. Yet on Desert So Green, a more song-based sound emerges from the static haze.

There’s a shadowy and frigid vibe that runs throughout most of this album, with steely waves of distorted guitars that howl like hurricane gales through grumbling mists of snarling synthesizers. Some tracks, like “More Frog Poems,” feature hypnotic Moe Tucker-like beats thumping out a funereal rhythm while entranced, heavily-processed vocals ripple out over the top with a ghostly shimmer. This track and much of the rest of the record have a monochromatic gothic-like feel that hovers somewhere between the dark psychedelia of The Black Angels and the strange industrial bleakness of Throbbing Gristle.

There are still some abstract jams and more soundscape-leaning pieces, like “Canvas 8,” or the majority of the “Birds Spells” suite, which feel only loosely constructed with plenty of room for these skilled improvisors and sonic visionaries to freely experiment within. This LP beautifully marries both the jam sides and the song sides of this band in ways that we haven’t heard before. The strength found in this overlap of their musical Venn diagram makes one even more excited to hear where Winged Wheel will venture off to next.

Click here to get your copy from 12XU before its release on the ninth.

-KH