"Ramp" was originally released in 1991 and is the seventh Giant Sand reissue in the series from Fire Records.
For 'Ramp', Giant Sand ushered in several new members to the fold, "including young bassist Joey burns, the stunning voice of 74 year old Pappy Allen, and our sweet, sweet friend Victoria Williams .. we had begun recording in Tucson and finished it back in Venice, CA at mad dog studio again .. the first track was produced by Dusty Wakeman and featured the late great Duane Jarvis".
Howe describes that the experiment with 'Ramp' was "to record an electric song live in the studio and have the pre-recorded acoustic bridge be slotted in by DAT machine while then starting up again with the electric part live at the same pace as before the DAT take was applied with its different beat. What made this tricky was the mechanical delay of the play button on the state of the art day machine...you can hear the result in "warm storm".
"Giant Sand is a mood," says Howe' of Giant Sand, as if trying to offer a low-key explanation for his dizzying array of artistic exploration that includes a back-catalogue of some 40 albums as a singer, band-leader and producer. After growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1970's, it wasn't until he moved to Tuscon, Arizona that he met his musical soul mate, the guitarist Rainer Ptaceck. The two formed Giant Sandworms and issued only a handful of recordings before the worms were put to rest: since then, Giant Sand have released 24 albums - an impressive haul when considering Howe's equally prolific output under other projects including Black Ranchette and Arizona Amp & Alternator as well as his solo releases.
1. Warm Storm
2. Romance Of Falling
3. Wonder
4. Welcome To My World
5. Anti-Shadow
6. Jazzer Snipe
7. Z. Z. Quicker Foot
8. Neon Filler
9. Seldom Matters
10. Resolver
11. Nowhere
12. Always Horses Coming
13. Patsy's Blues
14. Shadow To You (Bonus)