Dire Wolves: Grow Towards the Light

Richard Gehr on July 16, 2019
Dire Wolves: Grow Towards the Light

Purely instrumental to the extent that singer Georgia Carbone croons a language of her own invention, guitarist/synthesist Jeffrey Alexander and Dire Wolves continue to explore the “higher dimensions of cosmic free-rock” on Grow Towards the Light, their fourth official album of extemporaneous ecstasy. About as ‘delic as you’d expect a band named after a Dead tune to be, Dire Wolves extend the tradition in tracks like “Spacetime Rider” and “Crack in the Cosmic Axis,” which ride magic carpets of Kraut-ish rhythmic precision for 8-10 minutes at a time, dodging the ghosts while yearning toward the clear white whatever with bonus violin and saxophone filigrees.