Though I've owned Desert Places for 35 years, have rated it a Gnosis 13/5 stars, and the album was a charter member of the CDRWL, I never penned any notes about it. Desert Places is one of those rare albums that ticks all the prog rock boxes, and yet doesn't really sound like anyone else. The melodic quotient is higher than most, and their compositional approach is different, but not radical. The key ingredient here is that Satin Whale has an uncanny ability to groove, most evident on songs such as 'Seasons of Life' and 'Remember'. This is head bobbin' music. The band manages to go from one idea to another seamlessly, while never losing sight of the song or the rhythm. It's an agreeable sound, the type that makes it an ideal place to teach others about the beauty of progressive rock. In this way, they remind me of early Caravan, though this isn't Canterbury styled music. Other guideposts from Germany would be Eiliff and Twenty Sixty Six and Then. Not a minute wasted here. A gem of an album.
Ownership: LP: 1974 Brain. Single sleeve. Green label. Acquired at the Mad Platter in Springfield, Missouri while passing through (1989).
CD: 2023 Made in Germany. 5xCD (The Studio Albums 1974-1981). Contains their first five albums in full with liner notes in German. Pity about this latter fact, as I'm sure many around the world would like to know their history. English translations are common and expected, so that's a disappointment.
Finally, after all these years, Desert Places received a CD reissue. It seems insane that it took this long. That leaves only the Gash album as the last classic green Brain album to not have been released on CD (legally). And the RMO albums... Maybe MiG will take care of those as well.
5/22/89; 1995; 3/11/24 (new entry)
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