Release Date: March 1st 2025. Record Label: Electric Experience Records. Formats: Reel To Reel Tape/DD/Vinyl
Songs From The Desert - Tracklisting
1.Comin' to LA 03:33
2.Electric Woman 04:06
3.Because Of Your Love 03:52
4.Hot Summer Day 06:42
5.Downhearted Blues 03:48
6.6000 Miles From Home 04:06
7.Gotta Move Away 05:16
8.Do You Feel It 06:26
Members
Max Tovstyi - guitars, vocals, bass on 1-6, keyboards, drums on 1-7, mandolin, percussion, strings arrangements
Andrew Vashchenko - drums on 7, 8
Valeriy Vitomsky - bass on 7, 8
Jess Rose - backing vocals on 3, 4, 6, 7
Emmery Brakke - backing vocals on 8
Kyryll Cherkashyn, Jemil Jelilev, Nastia Rukhlina - saxophone on 7
Kazumi Suzuki - flute on 7
Tobi Samuel - drums on 8
Review
Songs From The Desert is the new album from Ukrainian artist Max Tovstyi who performs with various artists from Europe, USA and Japan for this album as you can tell from the extensive line-up of musicians who appear on the record. The record itself is a collection of tracks outlining a style of Desert Rock, Stoner Rock, Blues Rock, Psych Rock, Folk and a whole lot of Experimentation which isn’t surprising with the number of people involved.
The record has quite a bohemian attitude with the hazy sounds of the Desert/Stoner Rock with Max being at the forefront of the action. If you dig the sounds of the 1970’s paired with the classic 1990’s Desert/Stoner Rock scene then the record will appeal to you which captures both era’s music superbly well within the opening tracks of Comin’ To LA, Electric Woman and Because Of Your Love. These tracks see Max flirt between Classic Rock sounds and the hip Stoner Rock swagger with influences ranging from Led Zepp, Jimi Hendrix and Brant Bjork in places. That’s quite an eclectic mix but Max pulls this off with style and grace.
Songs For The Desert has a stripped back approach with the production values but that’s understandable with this being a worldwide collaborative effort but everything sounds good and quite grand for the majority of the record. I do admire the organic vibe for this record and the lyrics are quite profound at times which does touch upon the horrible events the Ukraine has faced over the last few years.
Max Tovstyi does have a huge likeable personality within his vocals and some of the laidback vibes he has written for this album which allows the music to have a true Classic Rock sound to it all.
Other cool tracks to check out are: Because Of Your Love, Hot Summer Day, 6000 Miles From Home and Do You Feel which oozes a sublime “TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL” type of creative energy when the record fully embraces it’s 1970’s Hard Rock roots with some fantastic Blues Rock guitar riff worship and embracing subtle Desert/Stoner Rock surroundings at the same time.
Songs For The Desert may not be the heaviest record out there but this is a superbly entertaining album with Max Tovstyi on inspired form that ranks as one of his best records to date. As Max has quite an extensive discography with his own solo releases and with his band The Heavy Crawls which are all worth checking out.
Words by Steve Howe
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