Where Mountains Meet
Frontier

Release Date: 2012 | Tracklist

There’s a plethora of different styles of music to choose from nowadays. With everything ranging from avant garde, jazz, classical, rock, pop, metal, to majoristic to minimalistic, it’s like a buffet of sorts and options to choose from. With all those aforementioned labels one can find some really good music while most of the time you’ll hear a bunch of generic crap. But from time to time it’s nice just to hear music that is just very well put together, music that focuses on intelligent song writing that evokes emotion and passion; no matter where the source is coming from. With this being said, I introduce you to “Where Mountains Meet”, a one man project of electronic music that has a bit of a post-rock feel to it. The music of “Frontier”, besides the drums which we will get to, is rather minimalistic, but not to the degree of the stereotype of anything boring. These fundamental patterns are very emotively based, where each note seems to have a specific purpose rather than moments that do nothing more than fill gaps of necessity. In fact, it seems unless a note doesn’t have a purpose it will not become present. These careful attentions to detail really connected with me as I found myself wanting to listen to this excellent piece of work over and over again.

The post-rock feel comes solely from the drums because unlike most electronic that uses “dub” beats and pulsing patterns, “Frontier” utilizes actual drum-kit styled moments in most of its entirety. When the first track “Antithesis” begins you immediately hear the use of the high-hat and toms coupled with bass kicks and snare. The patterns aren’t repetitive either like most programmed beats. You get the feel that an actual drummer is playing even though the use of programmed drums are present. Some of the tracks are a bit short, however, where the first three tracks out of five are right at or fewer than three minutes in length. These shorter moments really show that the artist has more room to grow on future projects where lengthier moments can be accomplished with the uses of dynamic builds and layering, or even perfectly timed-unexpected tempo and emotion key changes. Regardless of potential, I felt the artist did well in keeping the openings tracks to a minimal length which fit quite well as an EP, rather than an LP, which I’m not sure which this classifies as of yet.

The formulas of “Frontier” display the use of ambient synths that perfectly back up the minimalistic pianos, but I found it very gratifying to see the use of staccato violins in track “Skies of Red” which give a bit of an epic rising feeling to the music. In some cases, like on the lengthier track “Insurmountable”, there is a big emphasis on delayed effects and ambiences, which are quite playful in serene type of way. The use of bass is fittingly intertwined as well which usually adds the final piece to the puzzle after ambience and groove are established.

Typically, the music as a whole can be described as dark, mellow, serene, and yet, slightly hopeful. In the closer “Past-Present-Future” the artist seems to convey a sense of disparity to the realism that he is surrounded by, but at the same time a bit of hope and faith seems to be the domineering factor. It’s as if the artist realizes that whatever is occurring can’t go on forever and a certain level of change must occur. He’s holding onto something in an honest-open type of manner and we can only gaze at what his finger is pointing to; consequently sharing in his passions for that moment.

Tweet

Recent reviews by this author
Dropped Flyer Electronic Cigarette	Abacus Abacus
Van der Graaf Generator Pawn Hearts	Finch (NL) Beyond Expression
Orwell AVOHFASIH	Odyssey (USA) An Abstract Existence

user ratings (2)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

3.8 excellent

Rank: #0 for 2012