Black Mountain - In The Future (Jagjaguwar)
4/5
By: James Orange
It's the future, but not as we know it, a strange mix of scorched wasteland and good time guys sipping beers on the porch. Just looking at the sleeve will give you a hint - with its Houses of the Holy-esque spacescapes, lyrics about witches and tomorrow, this is Arthur C Clarke, this is LSD paganism, some psychedelic apocalypse, the future as imagined from the early 70's.
The first two tracks lay the band's cards clearly on the table, the first built around a menacing riff that comes galloping out of the mists like one of the four horsemen - even at four and half minutes it feels like a tight muscular package, rattling along and threatening to collapse at any point. The second - 'Angels' - pulls back to let the sounds suddenly open up, epic and sweeping it reveals the flipside to 'Stormy High' and the second of the two elements that play along the LP's length. 'Tyrants' plays the same game, worrying that they only ever had a couple of ideas as the exhausting intro pulls back to glimpse the folk heart. But then the tide comes crashing in again, the wash swallows everything and around the five minute mark a storm descends. This is a song which has had everything thrown at it and is more than capable of standing up to the strain.
The warped future vision of the band seems to be a kind of technological wasteland, of horse riding demons and harbingers of doom; 'Queens of Play' is the realisation of that dream after too much acid - a slow psych out across the desert that manages to successfully re-imagine the fairly predictable elements present in songs like 'Wucan' and 'Evil Ways'. But with an album so dripping in its own retro-fetish you inevitably have to forgive it a few indulgences, it all depends on whether you see them as trappings of a genre or hallmarks of a genuine artefact. 'Bright Light' for example is playing a very dangerous game, coming daringly close to pastiche; and 'Wild Wind's guitar line sounds like it's been lifted from a power ballad (even after its been refracted through the band's fuzzy mindset) - its an enjoyable two minutes but I'm glad it didn't stick around.
Maybe it's just because they do it so successfully elsewhere that it feels a just little disappointing when they misjudge it. Amongst all the darkness and threat 'Stay Free' is a beautiful standout song, the stormy weather that the album's so enamored with breaking for a second to let the sun shine down. Just a sweet summer's evening that's so damned mellow you never want to end. It's the track that comes closest to conveying the glory in nostalgia that the album represents, and after listening to it I'm inclined to join them. - to trade in this present for the futures of the past.
Artists in this article: Black Mountain
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