Speck Mountain - Summer Above
Artist:
Speck Mountain
Label: Peacefrog
Release Date: 07/04/08
Rating:
In a recent interview here on DIY, the Chicago-based Speck Mountain described their debut album 'Summer Above' as "an album about unrelenting hope in the midst of a great disappointment with our existence". Wondering what the heck they're getting at? Well, we'll try and help you.
From the outset, the title suggests something positive and bright hanging above disappointment and sterility: summer is on its way, trying to ease out the remnants of winter that spring perhaps held. And on listening to it, that seems to be what the album is: a Galaxie 500-cum-Spiritualized sounding, tender listen that is uplifting and uncertain; it demonstrates a sense of hope perpetually hovering above, yet failing to push this feeling of disappointment away.
The opening title track demonstrates this perfectly, with Marie-Claire Balabanian's placid vocals teetering above a dreamy mixture of percussion-sounding organ, saxophone and slow, jagged guitar. It's the perfect combination for music to accompany a lazy, summer's day. Yet within Balabanian's vocals is a hint of Chan Marshall, bringing with it a touch of disillusionment and sorrow. Also, the lyric "I run free, when I feel no-one feeling me" is ambiguous, and carries the hope of being free and independent, but the disappointment of feeling alone.
The jagged guitar also increases this uncertainty - as if things could suddenly take a negative, unpleasant turn. With this being ideal summer music, perhaps the song could now represent the volatile nature of summer and life in general.
The eight-minute plus 'Chlorine Fields' takes the Galaxie 500 sound further and presents a persistent change from the serene to the uneven; the vocals then disappear, and we get something more menacing sounding with high-pitched organ and heavy guitar coming together in a My Bloody Valentine like fashion.
'Stockholm' is a much more straightforward, optimistic and even sedately rousing; we even get a period of whistling akin to the type your Dad would do while putting up an IKEA shelf. But the album gives and takes, with the preceeding track 'Fjord Song' extinguishing any degree of optimism with its empty, echoic, minimalist sound.
This is a complex debut album, but a promising one. There's definitely enough here for Speck Mountain's "unrelenting hope" to remain, and perhaps become stronger.
David Meller
Speck Mountain MySpace
Label: Peacefrog
Release Date: 07/04/08
Rating:
In a recent interview here on DIY, the Chicago-based Speck Mountain described their debut album 'Summer Above' as "an album about unrelenting hope in the midst of a great disappointment with our existence". Wondering what the heck they're getting at? Well, we'll try and help you.
From the outset, the title suggests something positive and bright hanging above disappointment and sterility: summer is on its way, trying to ease out the remnants of winter that spring perhaps held. And on listening to it, that seems to be what the album is: a Galaxie 500-cum-Spiritualized sounding, tender listen that is uplifting and uncertain; it demonstrates a sense of hope perpetually hovering above, yet failing to push this feeling of disappointment away.
The opening title track demonstrates this perfectly, with Marie-Claire Balabanian's placid vocals teetering above a dreamy mixture of percussion-sounding organ, saxophone and slow, jagged guitar. It's the perfect combination for music to accompany a lazy, summer's day. Yet within Balabanian's vocals is a hint of Chan Marshall, bringing with it a touch of disillusionment and sorrow. Also, the lyric "I run free, when I feel no-one feeling me" is ambiguous, and carries the hope of being free and independent, but the disappointment of feeling alone.
The jagged guitar also increases this uncertainty - as if things could suddenly take a negative, unpleasant turn. With this being ideal summer music, perhaps the song could now represent the volatile nature of summer and life in general.
The eight-minute plus 'Chlorine Fields' takes the Galaxie 500 sound further and presents a persistent change from the serene to the uneven; the vocals then disappear, and we get something more menacing sounding with high-pitched organ and heavy guitar coming together in a My Bloody Valentine like fashion.
'Stockholm' is a much more straightforward, optimistic and even sedately rousing; we even get a period of whistling akin to the type your Dad would do while putting up an IKEA shelf. But the album gives and takes, with the preceeding track 'Fjord Song' extinguishing any degree of optimism with its empty, echoic, minimalist sound.
This is a complex debut album, but a promising one. There's definitely enough here for Speck Mountain's "unrelenting hope" to remain, and perhaps become stronger.
David Meller
Speck Mountain MySpace
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