“Desertic Rain” is the latest release by Wino Gandara, a superb Guatemalan musician, songwriter, and producer. It’s his first piece of work this year, arriving as an adequate follow-up of “The Journey” and “Ad Astra,” two excellent singles released during 2023 that you should also check out as soon as possible. Still, his latest material arrives with many innovations in songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing, showcasing the continuous progression of a profoundly talented artist. With tremendous ideas and impressive musical skills at his disposal, Wino Gandara crafts catchy, memorable, engaging compositions that will unquestionably resonate with anyone who appreciates cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed music. Sonically, this immensely talented artist incorporates many different but complementary music styles to illustrate vivid, luxuriant, exciting sonic imagery. Perhaps progressive rock comes to mind first, but you’ll unquestionably notice how some of the finest properties borrowed from psychedelic rock, post-rock, alternative rock, hard ‘n’ heavy, dream pop, and cinematic ambient found their way into this sonic equation. His music continuously levitates between eighties prog-rock nostalgia and approaches usually hearable in modern rock pieces. Still, he leaves more than enough room for many experimentations and explorations into known and unknown sonic territories. He uses all these additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to uplift these instrumentations to new heights while simultaneously remaining loyal to the primary sonic direction. Therefore, “Desertic Rain” will unquestionably appeal to anyone looking for catchy, memorable, engaging, technically demanding yet easy-listening progressive rock music.
For this particular release, Wino Gandara presented two versions of “Desertic Rain.” This epic sonic journey commences with the instrumental version, nearly six minutes of a colossal slab created by stacking some of the finest ideas and exceptional orchestrations. The synths play a significant role in this sonic equation, delivering a comprehensive collection of marvelous leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, chord progressions, ambiances, and other sonic maneuvers. The synths and keys gradually prepare the listener for what’s about to come next. The guitar works are stars of this show, as they deliver the same amount of heavy riffs, catchy chord progressions, jaw-dropping solos, and other virtuosities. You’ll notice how rhythm and lead guitars continuously clash for dominance without overwhelming each other while all those impressive solos lead the listening apparatus through each segment. In the meantime, the equally exciting, vividly hearable, warm-sounding basslines provide more than necessary heaviness, clarity, and depth while binding all these orchestrations together with the rhythmic patterns. These low-ends are rich, dense, heavy, and luxuriant, contributing more power to the composition. The exceptional drumming performance based upon tastefully assembled, flawlessly performed, well-accentuated, energetic, dynamic, groovy beats, breaks, fills, and other percussive acrobatics keep everything in line while dictating groove and pace with such precision and finesse. The other version includes an excellent vocal performance that guides the listening apparatus and commands attention from scratch to finish while the instrumentations remain intact. These passionate, sincere, confident, emotive, powerful vocal harmonies emphasize everything Wino Gandara intended to achieve with his music. The impressive vocal range seamlessly guides low, mid, and high notes, decorating every segment and instrumentation while spicing things up and elevating the song to new heights. It’s a great addition to an already incredible song, so the second version is equally impressive as the instrumental one. Also, it’s good to mention that the vocal version is slightly longer than the instrumental, so some changes in arrangements have been applied.
Speaking about arrangements, Wino Gandara did a tremendous job while writing, composing, arranging, and producing these songs. All the instrumental and vocal arrangements are crafted with such dedication to the craft, pointing out all the qualities of his ideas. Both compositions arrive with perfect structures, garnered with many intricate segments, brilliant ideas, and marvelous orchestrations. Each instrument has its place and purpose in this sonic equation, so if the synths and guitars act as a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon, then the bass and drums serve as a backbone, holding everything together. Wino Gandara has created a magnificent release where all his experience, knowledge, skills, creativity, and talent shine divinely. “Desertic Rain” proves that progressive rock can still sound exciting, innovative, fresh, unique, and entertaining. Therefore, you should immediately place this masterpiece on your music radar. The single is available on all streaming platforms. Don’t miss it!
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