This opening line from the debut single “New Tongue” launches us into the sophomore album Glass Fate by the Chicago based Desert Liminal. Glass Fate takes us through a Lost Highway trip into the subconscious of Sarah Jane Quillin’s year while writing this record. The songs form a collective meditation on Quillin’s hope and grief while processing the loss of a parent, the end of a beloved band Heavy Dreams (a collaboration with DEHD’s Emily Kempf), and witnessing the surreal near-death experience of her best friend, Desert Liminal’s drummer Rob Logan, during one of their shows. Channeling this heaviness into soaring and simmering experimental indie rock, Desert Liminal’s sound is marked by Quillin’s spectral vocal melodies layered over warm, looping walls of vintage synthesizer and violin filtered through a distortion pedal array. Rob Logan’s drumming ranges from driving post-punk drum grooves to thoughtful, held back polyrhythms that serve and elevate the record.
