Sonoran

VINYL FORMAT. In the punk-rock prime of his youth, Ryan Rousseau (aka Elvis Wong) saw himself cutting his teeth as the drummer for the Wongs, eventually hooking up with Jay Reatard to play in the Reatards, and dividing his time between the former band in Arizona and the latter in Memphis. Ryan soon recorded the first Destruction Unit 7", a blistering slab of synth-punk, which eventually led Ryan to Tuscon's drony, synth-heavy Digital Leather. Ryan in turn filled in from time to time on drums for Angles Angles, and eventually found himself recording two more LPs under the Destruction Unit moniker with help from Jay and Alicja Trout starting up the southwestern punk act Tokyo Electron, and exploring his more melodic, post-punk roots with Earthmen and Strangers. After the death of Jay Reatard in early 2010, Ryan resurrected Destruction Unit, this time emphasizing more psych/kraut/desert rock influences on their first LP, Eclipse, in FDH Records. For their second LP, Sonoran, the group has almost completely stripped away whatever synth-punk leanings they were holding on to, creating a purely 'desert-at-night' psych/kraut/space-rock album best enjoyed on the long nightly drives through the barren wastelands of the Southwest.