Italians Desert Collider conquer rock’s great desert in the sky during “ThumpeRRR,” colossal showdown from their stellar maiden voyage.
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Stream: “ThumpeRRR” – Desert Collider
By design, debut albums function as a proof of concept.
Here is what one student of the game – through various degrees of imitation and innovation – brings to their assigned field. Desert Collider sit comfortably with the stoners at the back of Music Biz 101, but the band’s first assignment for fuzz giant Small Stone Recordings is far, far away from half-baked.
As advertised, Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity is a wild and lengthy ride. Clocking in at just a few gravitational turns short of an hour, the album bends the loosely defined laws of psychedelic rock across suspended sprees of headbanging, bug-eyed freakouts, milky synth constellations and duskblown acoustic wandering through the lonesome chill that’s only found in deep space. While in some ways a side quest from the band’s larger existential mission, it’s the late standout track “ThumpeRRR” that heralds Desert Collider as rulers of rock’s great desert in the sky.
Desert Collider are grounded by practical ambitions. All four members met while working at an undisclosed research institution presumably located in their natural Italian habitat of Cesena. But the band bonded over heavy psych and other mind-altering substances. Generation Ship takes a literal page from Robert A. Heinlein, the dean of science fiction. The album questions not only the foundations of society but our place within the universe ad infinitum. It’s a lot to inhale in one couch sitting, but “ThumpeRRR” presents the perfect gateway for casuals. The song recalls a gadget from the Dune IP universe that’s used to summon the almighty sandworm.
Not that Francesca Santini’s retrofuturist cover art doesn’t paint a breathtaking picture, but allow me to set the scene. As the sun beats down upon the Fremen of Arrakis, “ThumpeRRR” opens against a sizzling haze of wah-wah pedal. Few bands in recent memory have braved this sweat-inducing subterrain known as desert rock, perhaps in fear of losing all sense of direction amidst its ever-shifting peaks and valleys, but Desert Collider are expert navigators. They know when to bring back the riff, only slower and with more sludge oozing out their Orange amps, though here, they don’t huff so much as throttle the gas.
“Is it just an earthquake?” wonders vocalist Federico Gianfanti, nose hairs singed by the song’s gaseous blues lead.
When the dust cloud of cymbals finally settles, the true force behind “ThumpeRRR” emerges in full messianic glory. Is it Hollywood It boy Timothée Chalamet? Get real. It’s Desert Collider, riding high atop a monstrously fat groove.
Worshippers of the riff, lay down your bongs and follow the band’s cosmic trail.
Generation Ship: Endless Drift Through Infinity is out now on Small Stone Recordings.
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:: stream/purchase Generation Ship here ::
:: connect with Desert Collider here ::
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Stream: “ThumpeRRR” – Desert Collider
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© Andrea Casagranda
© Andrea Casagranda
:: Today’s Song(s) ::
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