America’s favorite desert lounge ambient supergroup, Prairiewolf, is back with a new album, so dust off your spacesuit. Due for release on September 20th, Deep Time is the group’s triumphant return, as they’ve traveled down from the mountains of Colorado to bring us more spiritual instrumentals.
Prairiewolf is a trio consisting of Stefan Beck (guitar and lap steel), Tyler Wilcox (bass), and Jeremy Erwin (keys and synth). Also, don’t forget about the Ace Tone Rhythm Ace, which I guess makes the group a quartet.
This Colorado-based group of gentleman mines their spiritual instrumentals at 8,000 feet, and they always manage to strike gold. Their music is also soaked in the divine inspirations of Sandy Bull, Alice Coltrane, and Tangerine Dream.
Centripetal Force (North America) and Worried Songs (UK) will release the new record, which is available for pre-order now. Deep Time will be available digitally, on vinyl, and compact disc.
Prairiewolf is no stranger to heady, immersive soundscapes. With his Golden Brown project, guitarist Stefan Beck has already built an impressive discography, creating shimmering, jewel-toned guitar odysseys.
Meanwhile, keyboardist and guitarist Jeremy Erwin and bassist Tyler Wilcox are well-known curators of the outer fringes of music.
Erwin’s Heat Warps blog is an exhaustive archive of Miles Davis’s labyrinthine electric era. Wilcox has chronicled the ragged edges of psychedelia and experimental rock for Aquarium Drunkard, among others. His own blog, Doom and Gloom from the Tomb, is a treasure trove for those seeking the rare and obscure.
With such pedigrees, you might expect Prairiewolf’s sound to veer into cosmic freakouts or mind-bending spiritual jazz explorations. Yet their self-titled debut, released last spring, took a different path.
Instead of face-melting solos or psychedelic blowouts, they delivered a collection of elegant, low-key cosmic grooves that might drift through the air in a luxury resort on Jupiter. It’s an unlikely kind of psychedelia woven with sonic threads from the mid-20th century: vintage synthesizers, echoes of spaghetti westerns, tropical flourishes, and a dash of space-age pop schmaltz.
Prairiewolf continues its deep space lounge explorations on Deep Time, creating easy-listening music perfect for our doom-scrolling era. By that, I mean it’s the type of music that will lower your blood pressure instead of raising it.
“Peach Blossom Paradise” starts the new record gently, a brief track that brings us back into the trio’s weirdly serene stratosphere. Like Stefan’s Golden Brown project, the guitar glides blissfully alongside eccentric electronic sounds.
“Demon Cicadas in the Night” is more mysterious, as you could probably gather from the track title. Tyler Wilcox’s bass guitar provides a touch of darkness that reminded me of Jack Silverman Quartet’s Prince of Shadows from earlier this year. Also, what an incredibly cool name for a song!
“The Cold Curve” could be an attempt by the trio to personify the frigid air of a Colorado mountain peak. In an interview I did with him a little while ago, Stefan told me that people had told him before that his Golden Brown music “sounds like Colorado.” I’m not sure how that makes sense, but maybe “The Cold Curve” is the soft, psyched-out sound of a misty Colorado night.
“Saying Yes to Everything” picks up the pace, and I detected some country-psych influence in this one. The guitar has some twang, but the groove chugs along, possibly placing this in the ever-expansive ambient country bucket.
“Lighthouse” sounds more like something from Prairiewolf’s self-titled debut. It’s a track heavy on the space-age schmaltz, like elevator music from Mars.
“Revisionist Mystery” is the single from the record, and it’s a clever track name. Musically, the tempo is slower, and the trio takes their instrumental psych to surprising places. The lap steel guitar is perfect, making that sweet whine that has made so many fall in love with the instrument again.
“The Meander” pulses with life, and I noticed how full-bodied the sounds of this new Prairiewolf record are here. Compared to the self-titled LP, the sounds on this new record feel richer and bolder, like a great dark coffee brew.
“Another Tomorrow” was another surprise. The guitar melody reminded me of taking an old R&B song and adding layers of countryfied psychedelia. It’s a beautiful composition and maybe my favorite on the record.
The record closes with “Common Exotic,” a peaceful way to send us off. Like many of Prairiewolf and Golden Brown’s songs, this one reminded me how much I love the common thematic element of nature. The group – and Golden Brown – often take ideas from the natural world and add a fun cosmic twist.
Deep Time is as good a sophomore effort from Prairiewolf as I could’ve hoped for. The Colorado-based trio expands on the themes of their debut album and takes it in exciting new directions, adding more colorful textures and psychedelia to their sound. Fans of experimental instrumental music will love it, and it’s a record that will be on heavy rotation for me throughout this year.
Check out Deep Time by Prairiewolf on Bandcamp here.
Prairiewolf: Bandcamp | Instagram
Centripetal Force Records: Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Official Website
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