Album Review: Mountains – Centralia

Mountains
Centralia
Thrill Jockey 

Come, for a story is waiting. It tells of something gentle which rose out a profound silence, in a time when simplicity and modesty ran next to one another. The gentle something is music. Never before had the globe heard anything like it. Common people manipulating gaps of time, to usher in noise and snuff out the stillness for one reason or another. Music has undergone a radical transformation since its invention, replacing straight rhythm with words and beat. What if someone were to tell you the old style still existed. Would you believe or cast them like a net into the blubbering sea?

It is not that impossible, though it may seem so. Slow builds and subtle transformations are still there; all that’s left to do is look. Koen Holtkamp and Brendon Anderegg follow this style of thought, crafting Centralia while recording songs in a way that mirror their pace, boundless and precise from verse to bridge. Guitars, cellos, organs and pianos join forces with modular electronics and synthesizers to create an engrossing listen. Texture enters and exits like the consuming public in “Sand,” as soft guitars jell into analog synths giving way to a gathered night.

“Tilt” and its melodic acoustics pulsate the steady haze surrounding “Living Lens” which brings this story to an end. Centralia could move mountains and, maybe one day, it will. As for this moment, we find ourselves amidst orbit with only a shred of hope. The industry has not died, for let this record prove. Hope is that little thing, unnerved by changing tides yet seeks comfort in times of tumult.

J.R. Leyvas (Twitter @JRLeyvas) 

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