Out Of The Desert

A diverse array of artists took to the stage for this remarkable concert, staged in the often-hostile surroundings of the Sahara Desert. Taking place on a remote location about five hours drive outside of Timbuktu, the festival was a unique experience for both the organizers and the acts who graciously appeared. Director Lionel Brouet was on hand to capture the proceedings on camera, leading to this astonishing film of the show.

The desert lives and within it a few wild creatures, some of them are rock-musicians if it happens to work out geographically just as it does with the Phoenix / Arizona based outfit THE MYRRORS. And the desert with it's supernatural, magical atmosphere was a huge influence on the four teenagers along with all kinds of psychedelic rock, Arabian, Latin American, Turkish and Indian folk music and mind bending free-jazz. And therefore the music sounds like a journey into the deep solitude of the desert in peace with oneself but still boiling and simmering hot, engrossedly floating fraught with visions and ghostly hallucinations from a strange world, even sometimes like taking a stroll in the garden of Eden. The stereoscopic, vivid and sometimes washy sound brings a trance like mood. Desert sounds like a cricket's chirring and spiritual chants, as to be found in the long track „Mother of all living“ intensify the hypnotic effect further on.

Iced Earth like their heroes grey and tragic. It's fine and dandy to sing about righteous heroes (see: European power metal) or malevolent forces (see: thrash, heavy, doom, black, death etc. etc.) but there's added dramatic weight to be found in a character that draws aspects of both…

Fans of blues rock guitar and those of Dudley Taft and his chosen career path will love this album. Using the six string as his flag, Taft plants it and, once again, lays claim to his little part of the blues rock world. Nasty, filthy guitar work and superior tone; just what you’d expect from the bearded guitar wailer. His first release, Left For Dead (2010) had a desert southwest feel to the music and story line with just a little Seattle grunge, while Deep Deep Blue (2013) saw him start to explore more of the rock side of the blues. Screaming In The Wind is no exception to this progression for the Cincinnati-based guitarist. Dudley spent twenty years in Seattle and was in the thick of the grunge movement, so there is a touch of eclectic influence in his playing.

The Last Exit is the fifth studio album from Still Corners, released on Wrecking Light Records. With the shimmering desert noir sound the band has become known for, The Last Exit takes you on a hypnotic journey, one filled with dilapidated towns, mysterious shapes on the horizon, and long trips that blur the line between what’s there and not there. Greg says, “We found something out there in the desert – something in the vast landscapes that went on forever." The Last Exit consists of eleven beautifully crafted songs with organic instrumentation, clean-toned guitar, spacious drums and the smoky croon of Tessa Murray. Album highlights include The Last Exit, White Sands and Shifting Dunes all of which evoke the vast space of the desert and rolling unconcerned skies.