Review: Orquesta Des Desjerto

Orquesta Des Desierto
“Dos”
(Meteor City)

If you somehow stumbled upon the rad-est drum circle in the world-it would probably be deep in some shady, dusty canyon in a remote part of the southwest, partially obscured by sagebrush and tumbleweed-you would probably hear music like that emanating from the varied instruments of the Orquesta Des Desierto crew. I’m no languagologist, but I’m pretty sure the name translates into the Desert Orchestra, and judging by their new disc, “Dos,” that appellation is not mere hubris. They’ve got organs, pianos, trumpets, saxophones, and even some creative guitar on this smooth, groove-heavy, mood-hopping far-reaching production.

On the hallucinatory instrumental track, “Over Here,” the crew struts its stuff by meshing lush guitar harmonies with spacey effects and sputtering blasts of pseudo-noise to create an aural peyote bender. “Someday” continues in this vein, with lavish building guitar strokes and an urgent undercurrent that blends with the atmospheric open-space production  to support vocalist Pete Stahl’s admonition to “Open up your mind” Then they totally switch it up and hop into an inspired honkey-tonk jaunt on “What in the World” Fonky! Let’s hope “Dos” begats “Tres.”