Press- Reviews
Nov. 07/ 2010--Review of "Desert Opuses" in #70/ Autumn 2010 issue of Maelstrom Zine (thanks to Pal Meentzen):
"The Middle East is a rewarding point of focus for many metal bands. The mystique, the rich history in terms of war, art, and civilization continues to attract people from everywhere. Let’s not get started on geopolitics and oil business, but rather focus on where magic meets music.
Here we have a guy from (sic) California who, instead of taking the easy way and singing about tumbleweeds in the Grand Canyon and cruising round the highway, prefers to delve into the spirit of places that are half a world away. Ryan Settee is a highly talented individual who has delivered with Desert Opuses an album based on themes like pyramids and ruins, pharaohs and snakecharmers.
Apart from this focus, Settee also elaborates on different approaches to listening. According to him, listening to Desert Opuses through headphones yields a most rewarding experience. Does it?
At first hearing it’s not too hard to think of stoner bands like Queens of the Stone Age. High Watt Electrocutions has a similar kind of lazy, groove-based feel. And it manages to transport the listener to places so dry, barren and frying hot that it almost tells you to not hear it when you are not in dire need of some antiperspirant.
Settee sings in a dreamy style that is also not too far away from the way Josh Homme does, but he has his own recognisable timbre, let there be no mistake about it. There is one other instance where a song ("Light at the Speed of Sound") has an odd melodic resemblance with Pink Floyd’s "Another Brick in the Wall," but this is possibly by sheer coincidence. But this seeming resemblance only serves to emphasize the psychedelic undertones both bands have in common. Drums are sparsely used, often in favour of percussive instruments with finer textures.
Although the songs are inspired by old Egypt, the music clearly originates from the Western hemisphere — a Californian guy and his take on Eastern mysticism. This means that there is still a strong flavour present of Western world views on melodic (rock) structures. As difficult and complex actual music from the Middle East may sound to untrained ears, Settee’s musical voyage is accessible. Mind you, where in Eastern music will you ever find a harmonica and see the use of glockenspiel? Having said that, it doesn’t mean that his compositions are simple and traditional.
His verses are often delivered in a near mantra style manner and one can imagine the guy singing all the way through with his eyes closed. One of the most mesmerizing examples of this is the oddly titled "Headphone Opus." It’s far better than the title suggests. Perhaps it might as well be called "Marijuana Groove" for the way it is circles around like smokeplumes of mind-expanding herbs.
In short, Desert Opuses is a fun concept album and offers a nice blend of stoner grooves as well as quiet and dreamy passages. It is perfect music to work to, yet much more than just background music. Maybe some people will find it too long-winded and etherial, and some may find it even downright boring. Maybe they should wait until the weather gets really hot, then maybe they can dig this stuff a lot more. What’s that, you say? It’s scorching already? Then direct your mousepointer to the right page and sample some of High Watt Electrocutions on Myspace now. (7/10)"
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