Desolation Wilderness
New Universe
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Label: K Records
Formerly an intern of K Records, Nicolaas Zwart chose Desolation Wilderness as a moniker for his solo ambient guitar, vibraphone and keyboard music-making, all of which are pretty and spacious in the way they skew precise narratives for expansive blankets of wavy sunlight. Few vocal tracks were recorded and most served anyway to introduce the idea of human sound rather than pointed singing. The recordings became endearing enough to his bosses that they gave him a shot at indie notoriety last year with a 7" release followed by the debut LP, White Light Strobing.
Though, his project is only entering its fourth year, New Universe is already signaling some drastic changes for Zwart's budding horizons. He's assembled a more concrete band to use refractory guitars and a louder drum kit to the stand up to the heat and scope of the California skyline. The brand of West Coast lushness to which the record aspires attempts to paint a canvass reflecting the beauty of the band's namesake and is pulled to the center by hushed and barely audible pop vocals with much louder, mellow-yellow hooks. They'd like to jump into indie pop with both feet while retaining some of the experimental charm which has made the group's ambient and largely instrumental recordings so indicative of a soft and incandescent place and feeling.
Transforming Desolation Wilderness into a rock band doesn't meet with a great deal of success. Zwart and company maintain their composure in crafting a convincing sense of place but can't seem to make the next logical step by telling a good story, which wouldn't be a problem if that wasn't what was clearly being attempted. Zwart sings much more frequently on this release and there's really no reason why so many lyrics are needed on compositions that are meant to be so sparse and elongated. If he's trying to be more expressive in his songwriting, the opposite effect seems to be taking hold. His singing compacts, what could be, more generous instrumentation similar to the nature oriented post-rock Brightblack Morning Light. "Restless Heart" does the best job in pairing the band's new rhythmic dynamism with wonderful melodic ideas but also serves as an outlier from tracks which, inevitably, seek to become increasingly similar just as each song strikes out in a new direction. Getting the albatross of indie pop hooks, which winds down most of the songs after three or four minutes, exhausts each before they're completed. "Moon Dreams" is never allowed to reach its galactic heights and "Slow Fade" meets a similar fate by circling back inside of itself to maintain a straightforward path.
A lot shines but nothing really bursts on New Universe. As a record of ocean shimmering exteriors, Desolation Wilderness ends up showing less imagination as they add more volume. Everything just seems to be coming in under the wire in places where Zwart aims for a bigness of sound and character without the boldness of announcing itself as such. Looking at his past, it doesn't have to be this way. Sure-handedness and an aptitude for tonal mood have guided this group to a mature setting in a short amount of time and with the right outlook it can surely renew itself again.
by Neal Fersko