Review Summary: The purest form of beauty and elegance to be found in minimalism.
Drawing even more influence from Brian Eno’s groundbreaking ambient compositions, Mountains have honed their soothing downtempo drone music to the point of near perfection on their third album Centralia. A grand album to say the least, Centralia is, for the most part, comprised of sweeping epics that owe as much to psychedelic music as they do lounge music. The fizzing synthesizers that open “Liana” take after key moments in Pink Floyd’s “Echoes”, bringing to mind the imagery of a celestial mural, while “Circular C” channels the resonating essence of Air’s Moon Safari, maintaining a chilled out cool and assuring comfort throughout its ten minute runtime. “Sand” initially presents itself as a delicate breeze to whisk listeners away onto aural cloud nine, only to later evolve into a sprawling, trance-inducing piece that’s magnificent enough to put even the most stressful of minds at peace. Even the shorter pieces such as “Identical Ship” don’t lack in the evocative power the longest tracks possess, bringing gentle acoustic guitars into the sonic pallete amidst the minimalist techno, and expanding Centralia’s reaches into post-rock realms.
This is emotive drone music with not only perpetual variety, but life. The album feels like a living, breathing thing as each track develops and unravels, which makes listening to each of the songs on the album an experience similar to watching a caterpillar change into a butterfly: It’s fragile and innocent in the beginning, and once the butterfly is born, it’s the most perfect example of the smallest of things having the ability to evoke such moving feelings of wonder and awe at the beauty of nature. It’s an appropriate analogy, as Centralia is as natural and whimsical as music comes. It takes its influences and converts them into meticulously layered journeys that shows a duo working at the height of their talent. Overall, it’s astonishing how music can be this low-key, yet so breathtaking and (pun absolutely intended) majestic at the same time as it is here on Centralia.
i had a teacher in high school that lived in Centralia, PA. one of the 7 remaining members of the
town because the government made them all leave due to the underground coal fire. i wonder if that
relates. prolly not.
great review.
MisterTornado Contributing Reviewer February 1st 2013
2373 Comments
Been meaning to check this out, sounds pretty wonderful
So yeah, Sobhi-style review on this one. Also, 69th review, wooooooooo I originally envisioned I'd review some more erotic music for the occasion, but this'll do.
Also, since every album that was relesed this week that I planned on reviewing has been reviewed by Staff and they've already conveyed my opinions better than I could have myself, I'm gonna spend the last days of this week reviewing some really overlooked and barely known albums from last week such as this one. Albums that don't even have pages, let alone reviews, and ones that I really like a lot. All 4.5's actually, greg84 style (lol I kid, I kid), since I really don't review enough new releases that I rate 4.5's.
I have, and I agree completely, Choral is just an absolute treat. These two haven't put out a bad album yet, they have a seriously strong discography going so far. Shame their music doesn't get more attention, because this album in particular just has such a wide range of appeal, it's ridiculous.
Overall, it’s astonishing how music can be this low-key, yet so breathtaking and (pun absolutely intended) majestic at the same time as it is here on Centralia.
You know how the lyrics in "America the Beautiful" go: "For purple mountain majesties"? That's kind of what I was getting at. I know that's a bit of a stretch for people to get, but I commonly hear "majestic" used to describe mountains anyway.
Also, thank you to whoever featured this. I appreciate it, even if it's kind of a random feature.
