Rating: NNNN
Chisel away at soulful Chicago drone experimenters Speck Mountain and you eventually get to their core duo: founder Karl Briedrick on guitar and bass and vocalist/guitarist Marie-Claire Balabanian. While Briedrick produces artful, not too noisy drones through vintage analog gear, Balabanian’s vocals have a distinctly soulful quality.
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The end result sounds like a subdued Beth Ditto fronting a less depressing version of Godspeed! Some tracks, especially Backslider and Backsliding, which fit together to form one song, would be almost uplifting if not for Balabanian’s thick, haunting vocals darkening the sparse musical space.
Top track: I Feel Eternal
