Paint the Town Orange: Mountains

February 26th, 2009 - The Stone - Alphabet City, NYC - Mountains
The Brooklyn duo, Mountains, performed their dreamy, lush, experimental sound pieces for a rapt, capacity crowd at The Stone in Alphabet City on Thursday night. The occasion was the cd release party for their new record, Choral (Thrill Jockey), and it's not a stretch to say that for just over a half an hour they had the audience under a spell.

Where their label mates, High Places, launch right into their songs, Koen Holtkamp's and Brendon Anderegg's are a slow burn; songs such as the new record's title-track clocking in over 12 minutes. From the outset one song bled into the other (the only chance for applause came at the very end of the set); guitars strummed with drumsticks were layered with harmonica, then melodica, and ultimately squeezebox. Healthy doses of white noise, non-traditional instruments such as a bowl with a bead rolled around inside and constant tweaks to sound via laptops were thrown in for good measure.

Beneath them, on the floor, lay a city of blinking lights and cords running in every direction for pedals and delays and loops. Despite the awkwardness of the space, there was a certain charm as every seat was taken leaving the rest of the audience to fill in on the floor (behind the band, even) or to stand. For those who missed out, Mountains play a free show at Chelsea Market on Monday, March 9th before heading out on tour in mid-April including a stop at the Empty Bottle in Chicago on the 26th.