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Black Mountain (2005, 46.31/88.47) ***½/T½ |
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| Modern Music Don't Run Our Hearts Around Druganaut No Satisfaction Set Us Free No Hits Heart of Snow Faulty Times |
[Deluxe ed. adds: Druganaut (extended remix) Buffalo Swan Bicycle Man Behind the Fall Set Us Free (demo) Black Mountain (demo) No Satisfaction (UK radio) It Wasn't Arson] |
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7" (2006) ****/TT½ Stormy High Voices |
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12" (2007) ***/TT½ Bastards of Light Thirteen Walls |
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In the Future (2008, 57.16/72.22) ****/TTTT |
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| Stormy High Angels Tyrants Wucan Stay Free Queens Will Play Evil Ways Wild Wind |
Bright Lights Night Walks [Limited ed. adds: Bastards of Light Thirteen Walls Black Cat] |
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Wilderness Heart (2010, 42.49) ****/TTT½ |
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| The Hair Song Old Fangs Radiant Hearts Rollercoaster Let Spirits Ride Buried By the Blues The Way to Gone Wilderness Heart |
The Space of Your Mind Sadie |
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7"/CD-R (2011) ***½/TT½ Rollercoaster In the Drones |
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IV (2016, 56.15) ***/TT |
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| Mothers of the Sun Florian Saucer Attack Defector You Can Dream Constellations Line Them All Up Cemetery Breeding (Over and Over) The Chain |
Crucify Me Space to Bakersfield [2-disc ed. adds: Mothers of the Sun (demo) Florian Saucer Attack (demo) Line Them All Up (demo) Cemetery Breeding (demo) Crucify Me (demo)] |
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12" (2017) ***½/TT½ Echoes Flux |
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Destroyer (2019, 43.12) ****/T½Future ShadeHorns Arising Closer to the Edge High Rise Pretty Little Lazies Boogie Lover Licensed to Drive FD'72 |
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download (2019) ***½/TT Junior's Eyes Future Shade (demo) |
Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
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Black Mountain are a funny old mixture; usually described as 'psychedelic', on their eponymous 2005 debut, they actually mix early-'70s hard rock (notably on Don't Run Our Hearts Around) with various strains of late-'60s psych, including that weird 'folk collective' style (think: massed vocals from both genders, sometimes with a vaguely gospel feel), with hints of late-'70s Noo Yawk noo wave and modern indie, to mostly good effect. The band are known to own a real Mellotron (actually a Novatron), but for all their championing of it, there's not actually that much to be heard on Black Mountain, with background choirs on Set Us Free (as it kicks off) and a flute part on Heart Of Snow, probably from Jeremy Schmidt; the strings are either an old string synth or a modern emulation, by the sounds of it. 2015's deluxe edition adds an entire disc's-worth of extras, both good (Buffalo Swan) and not (the indie-ish Bicycle Man, the dreary demo of Black Mountain), so, with only distant Mellotron choirs on Buffalo Swan, I couldn't really recommend a re-purchase.
Two interim singles appeared before their next long-player, Stormy High predating the album by two years, its non-album flip, the dreamy Voices, giving us a suitably drifting Mellotron string part. The non-album Bastards Of Light c/w Thirteen Walls harks back to their debut, featuring a Mellotron flute part, with more of the same, plus choirs, on the flip.
It took the band three years to follow up with In the Future, chucking out most of its predecessor's foibles in the process, making it a more straightforward and cohesive release. It's unlike me to praise a limiting of horizons, but it's actually a better record for being more focussed. They've seriously made up for their debut's failings on the Mellotron front (Schmidt again?) and how, with strings and choirs on opener Stormy High, nicely upfront string and flute melodies in Angels, strings, flutes and choirs on the epic Tyrants... Wucan's strings are certainly wobbly enough to be real, while Stay Free features the first appearance of a second tape frame and cellos, with more choirs on Queens Will Play and Wild Wind and a return to that second frame for the brass on the sixteen-minute Bright Lights. A limited edition version of the album adds three tracks to a second disc, including both sides of Bastards Of Light.
2010's Wilderness Heart delves even further into the past for its inspiration, sounding like a more psychedelic Sabbath in places; the stupendously rocking Let Spirits Ride could almost be a Heaven & Hell outtake, while the seriously Zep-esque The Hair Song and Old Fangs help to keep the standard up. Nearly as much Mellotron as last time round, with semi-Arabic scale strings on The Hair Song, more strings on Old Fangs, something unidentifiable, yet clearly Mellotronic, on Rollercoaster, background choirs on Let Spirits Ride, another major string part on Buried By The Blues, strings and near-solo choirs on the title track with more of the same on closer Sadie to finish things off nicely. You wouldn't call Rollercoaster an immediately obvious single, but its flip, In The Drones, is at the gentler end of their range, with Mellotron flutes and chordal strings to pep it up.
2012's Year Zero soundtrack contains new and old material, but nothing new in the Mellotronic line. 2016's imaginatively-titled IV marks a semi-return to their early indie/psych days, not necessarily a move for the better, to be honest. Highlights include the old-school hard rock of Constellations, the psych-doom of (Over And Over) The Chain and trippy closer Space To Bakersfield, although opener Mothers Of The Sun, the punky Florian Saucer Attack and the drone-heavy Line Them All Up work less well. Schmidt's finally officially credited with (heavily reverbed throughout) Mellotron, with a flute line on Mothers Of The Sun, occasional choir notes on Constellations and Line Them All Up and flute and string lines on Cemetery Breeding, although the jury's out on whether or not that's a string note under the string synth on Space To Bakersfield. The two-disc edition adds less reverbed flutes on the Mothers Of The Sun demo, although the disc's other demos really are for die-hards only. The following year's Echoes 12" (not that one) c/w Flux sits at the more psychedelic end of the band's spectrum, combining programmed and real drums with warbling synths and sequencer lines on the 'A', while the flip is more upbeat, with a psych breakdown in the middle. Occasional Mellotron strings on both sides.
2019's Destroyer (yeah, yeah, Kiss fans, whatever) is actually a return to form, prime heavy psych pretty much throughout. Highlights? The ridiculously-titled Horns Arising, High Rise and Licensed To Drive, perhaps, although opener Future Shade is a little too close to Kiss' dumb-arse hard rock for comfort... And what's going on with closer FD'72's Bowie knock-off? Although Schmidt's credited with Mellotron on all but one track, it's only properly audible on three, with choirs halfway through Horns Arising and strings and chordal choirs all over Pretty Little Lazies, the album's obvious Mellotronic highlight, with more of the same, buried in the mix, on Boogie Lover. The other three credited tracks? Difficult to say, particularly the amusingly-titled Closer To The Edge, a laid-back, synth-heavy piece, where any Mellotron parts should cut straight through the mix. Anyway, a fine album, if light on audible Mellotron work. The same year's download-only Junior's Eyes is, of course, their cover of the Sabs song, from the underappreciated Never Say Die!. Black Mountain turn it into an eight-minute psychedelic epic, of course, with understated chordal Mellotron strings and a flute line, although nothing on the virtual flip.
All in all, then, if you prefer waffly indie/psych with the odd hard rock interjection, go for Black Mountain's debut or IV, but if you're of a hairier persuasion, In the Future, Wilderness Heart and Destroyer are yer men.
See: Sinoia Caves | Pink Mountaintops
