Media

Mountains: "Ceremony" (Stream)

4:27 p.m. · March 2, 2009 · by Matthew Fiander

Mountains' latest record Choral is full of organic and warm ambient compositions that expand and swell around you. Rather than feature electronic elements, they instead build on quiet guitar and organs and finish them off with a light touch of computer fuzz. The resulting pieces are pastoral, moving and strong enough, in all their faint insistence, to absolutely pull you in. "Ceremony" is one of two bonus tracks available only on the vinyl edition of Choral, and the banjo pluck, steady drum and shimmering distant cymbals sound more like folk music than something you'd call ambient. The song is also a little more direct in making its presence known than the longer stuff on the record. If you haven't got the new album yet, this track might make it worth spending the extra couple of bucks on the big black discs.

Choral is available now from Thrill Jockey, and you can stream "Ceremony" over at Stereogum.