Band Review: It's A Mountain

‘We really don’t have a genre, so don’t expect the same sound from every song’. This quote from the bio on their MySpace page is a fitting introduction to the entity known as It’s A Mountain. Active since May of 2009, It’s A Mountain channels its instrumental musings to Providence via Portsmouth, Rhode Island. The band takes its name from the rather steep path leading to the practice space they rehearse at.

      While there is a lot of truth in the above statement, they do list ‘various post-rock, ambient, and jam bands’ among their influences. In this sense, they automatically attain a degree of novelty. The Providence scene is generally known for noise and metal; post-rock influenced bands are something of a rarity.

     The band itself is a four-piece, and with the exception of Alex Klameth, who plays guitar, everyone is a multi-instrumentalist. With the exception of one line-up change, the band has consisted of Alex, Alex Perry on drums and synth, Alex Wasilewski on bass, guitar, mandolin, violin, and vocals, and Jacob Telford, on guitar, bass, and vocals.

     The music itself is a fairly lush affair. There is a fair degree of sensitivity regarding timbre, and layering of rhythms to create an orchestrated effect. ‘Journey to
Fog Mountain’, one of the tracks on their MySpace page, is a good example of this type of thinking at work. The track opens with an oscillating synth figure and some broad tones in the bass. As these elements coalesce, tremolo-picked guitar enters, presenting an introductory melody that has a haunting quality to it. As these elements build, the rest of the band kicks in, and everything breaks loose. The mid-tempo feel and the fundamentally riff-driven accompaniment, built out of a couple of chords, generate a feeling of wonder and quiet melancholy.

     ‘4’ is a fundamentally different affair. Built out of a delay-affected riff, this piece  moves with a higher degree of propulsive rhythm. While this tune is full of interesting ideas, as a whole it is less satisfying than ‘Journey to Fog Mountain’. There is something about the recording that sounds more like a rehearsal; it has less of a sense of confidence in the execution than the other. If the inconsistencies were ironed out, this would be another compelling musical journey.

     In general, there is a fairly close relationship between the recordings and the live show. The sense of energy loss usually encountered on a recording isn’t as noticeable. This probably has something to do with the fact that the recordings are essentially live demos. High-end production isn’t always a good thing.

     Jacob has explained that the band is essentially on hold, as the members are all attending different colleges, and the ‘Mountain has been laid to rest’, until such time that the band can get back together. So, that should be sometime next summer. For now, the band can be accessed via MySpace and Facebook. Here are the links. Check them out.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-a-Mountain/122607324431470

http://www.myspace.com/itsamountain