Detroit-born avant-rock supergroup Winged Wheel doesn’t write songs; they paint canvases. Their third album, Desert So Green (22 January 2026), lives up to its title and the naming of its tracks (“Canvas 11,” “Canvas 2,” “Canvas 8”) by treating music with the disciplined work ethic of a painter—each song becomes an opportunity to reformulate the palette.
Eclectic Alchemy
A collective of six individuals living in six different cities, each a master of their own projects (Spray Paint, Water Damage, Matchess), Winged Wheel draws nourishment from every layer of the independent music ecosystem. Featuring legendary Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley alongside Drag City’s violin sorceress Matchess (Whitney Johnson), the group maintains a miraculous gravitational pull despite its complex logistics. What was once a precisely ticking motorik machine has now evolved into something far more unpredictable and enigmatic.
Dream Logic and Sonic Layers
The album opener “Canvas 11” builds an expressway into your mind with sci-fi synths and interlocking guitar patterns. Yet instead of delivering the expected explosive climax, it fades like a storm retreating, preparing the listener for the album’s dream-like logic. “Speed Table” fuses 1970s Wire-style riffs with Shelley’s rolling drum patterns, carrying the track from manic energy into majestic meditation.
Emotional and Experimental Balance
Whitney Johnson’s vocals appear and disappear like a silhouette rather than dominating as a lead singer. In “Canvas 8,” her soothing voice is swallowed by a mushroom cloud of drones, producing a post-apocalyptic atmosphere that feels like Low songs filtered through The Disintegration Loops. One of the album’s most arresting moments comes with “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home,” where vocals rising from a dark basement take hold of the heartbeat like a slowed-down “Ceremony.”
Apartment No:26 Note:
Winged Wheel is too jagged for shoegaze, too explosive for krautrock, too cosmic for post-punk, and too chaotic for post-rock. This “undefinability” is their greatest strength.
Steve Shelley’s characteristic drumming—rooted in his Sonic Youth era—anchors the group’s experimental tendencies in solid ground.
If you love Sonic Youth’s structural deconstructions, Low’s stately melancholy, or Wire’s sharpness, this album is a vast gallery waiting to be explored.
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