Thursday, January 7, 2010

Secret Mountains - Kaddish
(+ ticket giveaway to show with Vetiver)

Here's the first post from our newest contributor, Allie. Allie is a Baltimore native, and is currently at NYU studying within the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. While studying sound, she is working with Underwater Peoples, a neighboring DC record label that's been responsible for some pretty great things as of late.

This is Allie's take on the debut EP from Secret Mountains, a local release that you can download for free right here. Get words, music, and a chance to win tickets to their upcoming show with Vetiver below.

Listening to Kaddish, the debut EP of Baltimore-based Secret Mountains, will cause you to breath a bit deeper, move a bit slower, listener a bit closer. The gradual crescendo of ocean waves and bird chirps in the title-track opener sets the mood for what’s to come—pensive nostalgia and a breath of fresh air.



The band seems to take elements from many disparate types of music, combining and layering them in a way that doesn’t sit within the confines of any one genre. One moment there are reverb-washed guitars and gentle croons, the next the voices have multiplied into a chorus and the guitars are squealing with distortion.

However, despite this seeming lack of conformity, the resulting sound is never out of place. The album as a whole flows seamlessly and intuitively from one track to the next, giving it the sort of cohesion not often found in a debut EP. And after listening to Kaddish, believe me, you’ll have to remind yourself that it’s their debut.

As a bonus, here is Rapdragons' version of "Growing Season", sampling the Secret Mountains track, and taken from our podcast session with them at the Copycat.



Secret Mountains, Small Sur, and Avi Buffalo all open for Vetiver January 19th at Sonar. Email bmoremusicallyinformed@gmail.com, and let us know you want a pair of free passes to this one. We'll email a winner the day before the show.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did Secret Mountains used to be called Owls Go, or something like that?

Ross said...

yes, they were owls go (or The Owls Go, or some such thing) for a while. the name change came with this full, 5-member sound.