Saturday, March 21, 2009

Visit Speck Mountain

Looking at the cover of Some Sweet Relief will reveal a lot about what's contained within it. A figured collapsed in a hole in the sand. Darkness hovering around, moving slowly in. The body curled in upon itself. It's an excellent graphic representation for the nine songs the album holds, the second album from the foursome Speck Mountain.

Its thirty eight minutes drift by in an ethereal procession of songs that carry a listener through an ambiance of uncertainty. Tempo-wise, the sounds here lazily push forward, never getting any momentum to propel you out of a shoe-gazing introspection, but varied enough not to drone on unmercifully. On top are laid the vocals of Marie-Claire Balabanian, whose voice mates up with the instruments really really, complementing their drawn out expressions.

Needless to say, this isn't an album of ecstasy, rather one of pensiveness. Experience I Feel Eternal below, a mid-album cut in which even the horn lines blend in with the flow rather than sharply punctuate. The band also recently visited the Daytrotter studios to record a session (it seems like everyone is stopping in there lately - must be a busy place). One of those recordings, another song from the album, is below along with a link to the remaining three.








Visit their label Carrot Top Records and become their friend on MySpace.

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