NAME: Black Mountain
SINGLE: Old Fangs
DATE: 13September2010

LABEL: Jagjaguwar

RATING: 3/5

FIVE WORD REVIEW: Old Fangs have strange taste

LOCATION: Vancouver, Canada

LINE UP: Stephen McBean, Amber Webber, Matt Camirand, Jeremy Schmidt and Joshua Wells

WHAT’S THE STORY?: Frontline unit for the Black Mountain Army collective offer a taste of what to expect from their upcoming album, Wilderness Heart, and their September UK tour with new single ‘Old Fangs’.

SOUNDS LIKE: We begin with a fairly standard growly rock beat, sludgy, laid back, slightly heavy edge to it; there’s a time-worn beer-on-a-porch sound to this… Except it morphs progressively as it goes along, increasing in complexity and adding unusual psychedelic elements, gradually acquiring a light dystopic feel, with some synth work adding a bit of glitter. The vocals are the high point, their male/female split flows like a casual conversation conducted through song and provide a pleasing ying-yang counterpoint to one another which really lifts up the whole track.

The problem is this doesn’t really sound like a wholly cohesive package – there’s both too much going on and yet not enough of one thing or the other. The ups and downs are completely unpredictable and the return to the mundane backbeat is occasionally jarring. Fortunately, the high points just about manage to hold it together for an enjoyable, if confusing experience.

YOU’LL LIKE THIS IF: You’ve been sitting on your porch drinking a beer and thinking maybe it could do with a few wind chimes (the porch not the beer). Or possibly if you like long drives to the beach to get completely stoned off your face.

LINK: http://www.blackmountainarmy.com/

Submitted By Andrew Gregory