“‘So, how did this band even happen?’ That’s the question most often asked ofWinged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that’s unexpected but undeniable. The band includesWhitney Johnson(Matchess, Circuit des Yeux),Cory Plump(Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s),Matthew J. Rolin(solo guitar wizard and half of thePowers/Rolin Duo),Steve Shelley(Sonic Youth),Lonnie Slack, andFred Thomas(Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s chain reactions. Early long-distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022’sNo Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024’sBig Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies. Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album,Desert So Green. After a run of shows across the Midwest in the spring of 2025, the group settled into a studio on the outskirts of Chicago to track their next record. Full-blast, krautrock-informed jamming took a backseat to deeper experimentation, and the band found new dimensions, different atmospheres. The arrangements are still dense with layers of synths, noisy disruptions, and glowing orbs of alien sound, but every shift is considered and intentional. It’s an album that spends its duration struggling to balance a scale with excitement on one side and anxious tension on the other. WhileDesert So Greenis defined by a newfound restraint, there’s also an intensity that never lets up.Desert So Greenrepresents yet another transformation for Winged Wheel, one that takes them into a space of sharpened dynamism and more nuanced expression. The energy that arrived all at once in loud explosions on earlier albums is refracted here, and all the more powerful when broken down. It’s a set of strange songs that demand close inspection and reward this attention with a clearer view of the band’s individual personalities, and the separate alchemical presence that emerges when these personalities come together.”