Climbing - Mountain > Reviews > Sludge rock

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	A good hard rock album
Disadvantages:	A bit heavy for most people,  I fear

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Formed in New York in 1969, Mountain were signed to Columbia (CBS in the UK) and this, their first album was put down that year and released early in 1970. Leslie West (guitar, vox) Felix Pappalardi (bass, vox) Corky Laing (drums) and Steve Knight (keyboards) recorded a riff-heavy LP complete with fuzzy bass that when played loud, as it should be as stated on the back cover, should explode your speakers and sound like a small nuclear explosion in your front room!! This is a heavy, heavy rock album from a band who, whilst kicking up quite a storm Stateside, are relatively unheard of over here.

Mountain actually sound very similar to a lot of British hard rock acts that were around at the time. For what it's worth they sound comparable to Cream, which is not really surprising when their bassist Felix Pappalardi was the producer of that short-lived but incredible British act. Though a four piece, whilst of course Cream were a trio, Mountain's fourth member Steve Knight adds keyboards which insert a bit of colour into their otherwise sludgy, bass-distorted sound. Leslie West will never win any Best Vocalist awards but his belting singing fits in well with the pounding beats. Whilst not as noise-orientated as the world's officially loudest band, contemporaries Blue Cheer, there is a lot of crushing guitar going on here.

Opening number Mississippi Queen ("do you know what I mean") shows the way for the record overall with its pounding four chord riff over some rather corny lyrics. Amongst the bombast you can pick out some nice melody lines, Theme From An Imaginary Western has some nice organ and a fine solo outro.

Silver Paper, with its grinding organ and top end guitar work, is a textbook example of late 1960's hard rock. The titanic riffing on Never In My Life, with its wonderful production (moving the sound backwards and forwards through the speakers) makes it a classic of rock music circa 1969. For Yasgur's Farm, not a song about Max Yasgur of Woodstock fame, is a good melody running over a paen to a love soon to be or nearly lost; a mid paced rocker after some of the thud of the earlier songs.

To My Friend sees just West playing some Russian polka guitar with no backing; and the quiet, considered The Laird sees the band take a breather before the colossal Boys In The Band ends the record. More solid riffing from West over soaring keyboards. Look there are two pointers about rock music made in 1969. It was either going down the heavy metal route (Zeppelin / Sabbath) or it was going southern boogie (Skynyrd / Allman Brothers). This is a kind of signpost towards those sounds, containing a bit of both. Whilst the crunching power chords of West dominate the album if you delve under them you'll find some amazing rythyms also going on, subtle it ain't but these chaps can play alright.

Good stuff from an almost forgotten band. Mountain still tour with West and Laing, and were in the UK in the summer. Alas, without Pappalardi, who was shot dead by his wife Gail Collins in April 1983 in a bizarre domestic situation.