Mountain Lord

I’ve got no information on this. I dont know who sent it to me. I dont know what’s going on. But f*ck me is it a goodun. You can tell from the opening strains of Psygh that you’re in for a bit of a treat here. A series of evil, low squelches are a kind of air-raid siren to what’s coming your way. Psygh keeps the tempo fairly low, only bubbling up towards the end when it segues its way via dropped beats and multi-layered schitzo-changes, into disjointed psychedelic mayhem. Levelheaded is the first blast proper of what’s in store: the production here is massive, we’re talking huge lines all conspiring to mess with your noggin and make you forget where you left your girlfriend, who also has the car keys, and how the hell are you going to get home, where is home anyway, what is home, where the hell am I and what are all these hippies doing moving their arms around me? Normal Drug Taking is monumentous, a discordant knees-up with Gong-like mumbling and some of the tastiest bottomends that have ever been crammed into 167bpm. It sounds like very nintendo entertainment system in the world simultaneously developed the power of thought, meshed together like a manga nightmare, and smashed the shit out of all the Nords. Hard Pooning ought to carry a government health warning. It’s simply massive, with one of the most wonderful flange-ridden mentalism noises I can ever recall hearing. It comes up from out of the keychange-aholic psychedelic soup, slices at you sideways, then spins you inwards on yourself before smacking on a load of topend just to confuse you even more. And if that’s the starter, then Auto-Bogan is the main course. Purely evil, it’s a legs-everywhere melodyfest that sounds like it was either written by several normal people (independently of one another), or by one very very odd person. I suspect the latter. The offset beats on Vanilla Hymn are a delight, it’s pure psychedelia in its most evil, manipulative form. Phat riffs keep it within the realms of the recognisable, before crazy-squelch-factor reaches overdrive and you’re catapulted into the realms of the sonically unreasonable. It’s swirling, a mess of lost underwear and oh my god there’s a condom on my head. Positronic is possibly the most user-friendly tune here, starting from comparatively standardised roots before raising the bar again and again, more and more sonic messing up to a nice breakdown with a wonderful, tear-jerking breakdown that takes a simple melodic cycle, adds harmonies to the top and bottom ends, and gradually staggers it via jazzy drum licks into… well, fuck me, into a damn fine final run that smacks very loudly of genius music production. The last time I felt like this was after listening to Aphex Twin’s Ventolin for the first time – amazed at the level of emotion that was coming out of the CD player. Avanc is chock full of snazzy little changes, as though the carpet’s moving underneath you (oh shit, I just checked and it is moving underneath me.) An astoundingly good top/mid lead comes in and springs it along, before it all gets seriously playful. It’s a little like sonic foreplay with a trio of dutch hookers, with featherlite tweaks and pokes coming at you from all angles, rising and falling, and anticipation that builds well via a spectrum of clean synth sounds. Finally, Rainbow Daze is… let’s see. It’s the ultimate psychedelic piece of music. The flow here is unbelievable… going from chilled to full 4-4 with excellent style and… and none of it sounds forced. I think maybe that’s what’s got me so much about this album – where most “psytrance” is contrived and falling into repetitious traps, Mountain Lord is forcelessly psychedelic, like comparing the doodles you did on mushrooms that time to the big paintings done by Alex Grey. Anyone who moans (and we all do) that the music is no longer psychedelic enough should do themselves a favour and get hold of this. I don’t do acid anymore and haven’t for years, but this album makes me want to. Lots. Which is surely a brilliant sign.