Mt. Mountain – ‘Centre’ (2021)
A sense of journey drives Mt. Mountain’s fourth album ‘Centre’. Their psych-rock flavour is firmly intact and lends itself greatly to their cosmic quest, but their usual rug-pulling strikes of shattering sonics are in their sparsest supply here, which generally allows for a gentler and more meditative experience.
The album suffers from starting on the wrong foot with ‘Tassels’. The track is an energetic cracker and displays what the band have been stalwartly solid at: building. But it is too galvanic, giving a false impression of what is mainly to come. Whereas the following track ‘Hands Together’ would have commenced the album with a superior notion of embarking on a space odyssey. If you close your eyes, it paints a psychedelic meander through the vast of night on your eyelids.
‘Two Minds’ is their shortest track to date, but that is where its sweetness lies. It melds an eastern-inspired guitar, airy vocals and a sedated groove, resulting in a reflective and richly textured soundscape that conjures a glimpse of what enlightenment may be like.
After a string of four mellow numbers, ‘Aplomb’ and ‘Peregrination’ emerge with driving, fuzzy bass and the band’s bravura with building. Both are mighty and exhilarating, specifically the latter of the two, but they jar with what was so serenely on offer before.
The album doesn’t reach the heights of their hypnotically propulsive ‘Cosmos Terros’ (2016) or the portentously atmospheric ‘Dust’ (2017), but it does provide a clear indication that they are moving further into the spacier side of their sound. Ultimately, what hinders ‘Centre’ is that it doesn’t play out like a united collection of tracks. There is a dichotomy between the gentle and the muscular, which feels like two albums competing for the same territory and unfortunately thwarts it from working holistically.
James Ewen
Mt. Mountain – ‘Centre’ (released: February 26, 2021 via Fuzz Club Records)
