Album Review: Mountains

"Sewn"
Apestaartje; 2006
4.5/10

Whenever I come across an album where the music is described as ambient or active listening, I am always hopefully that maybe I will experience something magical. Maybe magical isn’t the right word, maybe something more along the lines of seeing a divine metaphysical spirit in my room.

Unfortunately this has yet to happen during any of the times I set aside forty-five minutes to experience what to some is life changing. Mountains is a collaboration between Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, the co-founders of Apestaartje Records. To describe the kind of sounds heard on Mountains second album Sewn, you could use many words because it doesn’t really fall under any musical genre, unless there is a genre called “ a microphone set up in the Rainforest Café, where a Flamenco guitarist gently strums away.”

That might seem a bit harsh, but if you listen to the full forty-five minute, eight-track album you would realize how accurate that lengthy genre name really is. I am sure the two members of Mountains are fine musicians but it doesn’t show on this album, unless one of the qualifications of extraordinary musicianship is the ability to hold one note on an organ for over five minutes. This music is not at all hard to listen to, in that it sounds bad; it is just on the, shall we say, boring side. It lacks a certain effort, which makes it come across as lazy art. Any person that thinks that this music is mind blowing should really stop fucking pretending. If you like the music that’s fine but if it is like a religious experience to you then you are trying too hard to be more indie than the fans of Moldy Peaches.

Now you might remember that I did say I wanted to find something, in music like this, something spectacular, or godly. Well, this is not possible. I want people to be inspired by music, and have it be life-changing cause that is the beauty of music itself. When you take it to the extreme you are missing the beauty and striving to find something that music can’t provide. I think Mountains are almost trying too hard to make it just for those that want that unattainable feeling. It isn’t art anymore; it is the lack of an artistic idea, and a lot of free time to record the soothing sounds of water.

- Ryan Cox -

Tags: Mountains, Sewn, Review, mp3