Mt. Mountain – Dust
The Cardinal Fuzz label is once again on one hell of a roll. Along with the new killer release by The Janitors, the good folks at CF have recently unleashed Mt. Mountain’s latest record, the fittingly titled Dust.
Native to Australia, Mt. Mountain play a droning, dark, doomy acid rock that conjures up images of harsh deserts, otherworldly shamans and hoards of stampeding wild beasts (to name but a few). In some ways, their sound is somewhat reminiscent of classic Bardo Pond melting into a strung-out LSD March jam.
The album creeps along at a stalking pace, rich with a heavy sense of foreboding that feels ready to explode at any second. Every song pulls you along through a land of murky, dismal rubble and hazy clouds that blot out the sun. A motorik rhythm pulses through most of the record, making it a deeply hypnotic listen from start to finish. The mesmerizing, broody music here feels very much like watching immense geological features of the landscape, like enormous sandstone buttes, rising into the horizon and slowly passing you by while you’re coasting in your car.
If push came to shove and I had to pick a highlight of the album, that distinction might go to the title track, which also serves as the perfect album opener. It starts out with a subdued yet primal, throbbing beat thumping out like some sort of call to war. Before long, the percussion is joined by an eerie, far away flute and subtle guitar lines that together slowly create an ever increasing feeling of dread and a tension that builds and builds until the drums and guitar finally crack like thunder and the band rocks out in a total sonic downpour. From that point forward, the tone for the rest of the record has been set and you are now neck deep in the shadowy, phantom world that Mt. Mountain have summoned together.
From the hypnotic beats to the constant use of expansive reverb and the music’s overall quasi-ritualistic quality makes this one of the most hazy, acidic records that you’ll experience for quite some time.
-KH
Record Crates United 