Mt. Mountain – Dust
Dust is desert-rock with a difference for Mt. Mountain hail from Perth, Australia and their desert is the outback. It’s just as lonely a place with arguably even more space in which to get lost, but this is a truly alien landscape – just check that killer artwork.
Building on the psychedelically droning foundations of last year’s Cosmos Terros LP, Dust comprises just four tracks and half of its 35-minute running time is consumed by its gargantuan titular opener. It’s a track all about mood and atmosphere, high-flying prop-drone sounding like it comes from throat of a distant didgeridoo, spidery guitar and drifting flute winds combing to form nocturnal animal calls. A steady percussive heartbeat slowly raises the tension, an inevitable post-metal crunch suddenly obliterating everything before it into literal dust. Damage done, it doesn’t hang about, the track fading back into horizontal meditation until space-rock FX begin to oscillate alongside ominous bass-work that heralds a destructive crescendo. It’s an elemental track, a big bang in the nothingness of the cosmos followed by a period of creation and subsequent tectonic upheaval.
Settling the nerves, the flip is full of sleepy jams, organ dither the bedding for liquid guitar repeats and sky-high zoning on “Floating Eyes”, gentle hand-drums and barely-there strumming as hypnotic as ghostly backing vocals that drip from the speakers. Particularly melted, “Kokoti” briefly breaks into brighter jangles before driving deep into the wilderness, the midday sun starting to warp perception as it throws up threateningly tremulous mirages – the sort of tape you might find wedged in the deck of the Mars Rover. Bill and Ted may have had it right all along. All we are is dust in the wind, dude.
Best track: “Dust”
~Dust is released 24th April 2017 via Cardinal Fuzz.~