Mountains – Mountains Mountains
Mountains (Thrill Jockey)
LP/CD/DL
19 August 2013
Great album sleeve. I love this album sleeve. Apparently it was created by pinning a piece
of paper on the door to the entrance of their gigs and asking them to write the
word. The colours of red on white are an
inverted version of the album art that was originally released as a mere 500
copy run on Catsup Plate five years ago.
Does the album live up to the sleeve
then? Well, it depends what you want
doesn’t it? If you want simple, minimal
sounds and scapes then it’s probably the thing for you. It glides along much like the Transmission 13
album Kaleidoscopio from last year and whilst I was writing this review, I
found myself comepletely drifting off and doing other things. It’s a bit special to say the least and is
thoroughly cleansing.
If the stories are true, The Whale
Years was originally recorded in a Georgia hotel room in 2005. It’s subtle and beautiful. It has elements of drone and huge slabs of
gorgeousness. Electronic effects flutter and fly like CGI butterflies and the
mammal in the title slides through sumptuous deep blue waters like a gliding
bird.
Nest contains some lovely guitar
work over a backdrop of ebbing water and is more than effective in is tumbling
simplicity. There’s a threat of huge
walls of sound in Millions Of Time that never ever materialises as it borrows
hints of Chariots Of Fire through a muffled, feedback of general
nothingness.
The imagery created with fourth
track and album closer, Hive, is quite remarkable. A busy mid-pitched bumble bee waggle dance slowly
builds into the buzz that it is clearly meant to replicate when sounds, for
this album at least, explode and reverberate slowly and majestically. Again, no percussion, and again, the
inventiveness of the album shines through.
Thrill Jockey are initially pressing
1,000 copies of the album, but, the truth is, they should really be needing to
press many more.
8/10
Links
Published on Louder Than War 19/08/13 - here
No comments:
Post a Comment