Audiopile Review: Comprised of various members of avant-rock/garage outfits like Tyvek, Spray Paint, and Matchess, Winged Wheel have grown from a quartet since their ’22 debut, adding Lonnie Slack of the Texas minimalist psychonauts Water Damage on guitar/keys, as well as thee Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth brought in as second drummer. The additional personnel is immediately noticeable, the band now becoming a lumbering juggernaut that split the difference between shoegaze, stoner rock and motorik psych. The first half of the album is a pure flex of their new potency, with a newly scaled up wall of roaring, scratchy guitars buffered by the tightly wound dual drumming. The drifty vocals of Whitney Johnson, best known under her Matchess guise, adds a nice featherlight touch to the sonic pummel. The latter half of the album is largely a free floating affair, the group in an ethereal Bardo Pond-esque setting, their guitars unfurling in a psychedelic mist. Big Hotel comes courtesy of the 12XU imprint, which quickly follows their mighty LP from Water Damage that we raved about last month, fans of that one should definitely take the time to hear Winged Wheel.

“Big Hotel, the sophomore effort of Winged Wheel, is an evolutionary document. Core members Cory Plump (Spray Paint, Rider/Horse, Expensive Shit), Fred Thomas (Tyvek, Idle Ray), Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Damiana), and Matthew J Rolin (Powers/Rolin Duo, solo) expand their lineup to include Lonnie Slack (Water Damage) and Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and instead of the entirely remote method utilized to create their 2022 debut No Island, the far-flung party convened in person in Kingston, NY for a long weekend of live studio recording. The results are undeniably compelling. The band’s signature cyclonic energy is simultaneously augmented and refined with the approach of real-time collaboration. After tracking three days’ worth of group improvisations, weirdly-born songs, and other spontaneous creations, the hours of material were edited with a similar intensity. Half-hour jams became three-minute ragers and fragments were looped into infinity, calling on the same spliced aesthetic as some of the most adventurous material by Can, Faust, or more recently the experimental production of the International Anthem camp. The stereo field has been torn apart and sewn together again, rerouted with strange and mesmerizing left turns. Vignettes of ambiguous construction, both tightly coiled and exploding, revolve around themselves, gathering intensity and mass, coalescing into something greater than the sum of its parts. Where No Island was born out of distance and murk, these songs breathe and erupt in close quarters. Though the band isn’t necessarily concerned with finding new levels of clarity, there’s a newfound power in the steady drive of Shelley’s unmistakable rhythmic style, and the unexpected interplay that builds on this foundation. Big Hotel is the sound of what happens in the rare and intriguing moments when Winged Wheel are all in the same room.” –Jen Powers