Ian Wellman chose a distinctive and fitting title for his first vinyl LP, given the context in which it was composed. Recorded during the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires in California, which engulfed huge stretches of the state in early 2025. Focused on capturing the Santa Ana winds that spread the fires (I’m trying to not make a Steely Dan reference here) and helped them to last for nearly a month, Particularly Dangerous Situation (named for an unprecedented weather forecast in the area) is simultaneously an audio document as it is a narrative composition, it is a captivating, but harrowing work to say the least.
The basic structure of the album features Wellman alternating between treated tapes and beautiful tones, and roaring recordings of wind, segued together into what feels more like two side-long compositions. Fittingly, the opening "Intro" captures a blast of winds resembling pure white noise, with an occasional crackling sound that hints at the destruction in the distance. The roar fades into "Particularly Dangerous Situation" as a somber, sustained tone that heralds the bleakness of the event. The melancholy sound is blended with the blast of winds, with the musical passages eventually disrupted by a heavy amount of distortion.
Whistling winds again fade in before abruptly being halted by a low, rumbling drone on "(Afternoon Report)." Other chaotic sounds captured by Wellman’s recordings are peppered throughout, with the piece staying steady with sheets of noise throughout. Wellman uses heavy low end and a drone far off in the distance to offer a basic, but beautiful counter to the harsher winds that preceded it on "Out of Our Hands." The tone ebbs and flows melodically but is soon tempered by static before ending the first side with rumbling, menacing pulsations.
The other side begins with "(Evening Report)," with the wind textures even more intense than before, with overt clattering sounds of various objects conveying a building sense of disorder. He brings a far-away hum becomes into focus on "The Moon Turned Red," a melodic counterpoint to what preceded it. "Wind’s Rage" follows with a sub-bass rumble, which he soon shifts into an overdriven noisy crunch, bathed in spacious reverb and echoing delays. Ian eventually constructs a harsh noise wall, which is then blown away by the wind of "(Store Sign)," leaving a crackle and crunch sound that becomes almost rhythmic.
His field recordings of "(Store Sign)" depict less of the wind and more of the consequences, via the banging of what I assume to be, well, a store sign. The appropriately titled "Nothing Will Be the Same" follows with a lush melody and bleak, sustained tones that become more and more dense, into what could almost be scraped violin strings. Finally, "(Outro)" is unsurprisingly another segment of roaring winds and destruction.
Wellman’s tape manipulations are sonically the antithesis of the distorted winds he captured during those tragic wildfires, but it is that contrast that works so well. His abrupt transitions between blasting noise and depressive melodies is an exemplary approximation of the violence and despair caused by such a horrible natural disaster. It is those juxtapositions that make Particularly Dangerous Situation a perfect narrative of fear and grief.
Listen here.
