Mt. Mountain - EP

Mt. Mountain released Dust earlier this year, and Cosmos Terros last year, continuing their evolution from the early 1970s cosmic rock of their demo, OMED (released in 2013) to a richer sound, more in keeping with long-form psych-rock. There’s now a disposition to slower guitar build-ups, igniting into ear splitting bursts of post-rock at surprising intervals (see the track ‘Dust’ from the album of the same title this year) ‘Dust’ is evocative of the desert landscapes in the drier areas of Western Australia, from where Mt Mountain hail.

Back in 2014, as I say, Mt Mountain were still evolving in sound, but the self-titled EP was a barnstormer. In many ways, the druggy pace and even hazier vocal conceal the excellent songwriting anchoring the music. ‘She Runs’ for instance is every bit as good as the darker spirits which inhabit The Black Angels, and also with a nod to the alternate '60s pop of 13^th Floor Elevators for instance.

The five tracks on EP show great variation, with none of the guitar-god histrionics that often accompanies this style of music. The guitar solos are beautifully corralled into the mix. Mt. Mountain appear to be more a collective than focused on individuals, at least to my ears. In fact, their music is more pleasurable for its understatedness. Another observation - tracks like ‘Tomorrow’ reinforce that Australian rock bands have always been informed by the blues, harkening back to the 1960s scene over here: see bands such as Chain, The Aztecs and Max Merritt and the Meteors. Some of the guitar work on the track “FX-My Love” also reminded me of The Thunderbirds, rollicking guitar notes bending back on themselves.