September 6, 2006 | Posted by Blair at 3:30 PM

Summer is not over

Mountaineer - a town called ivanhoe

Okay, okay, so that last post where I said summer was dead, forget it. Or just, 'sort of' forget it anyway. There's not much of it left, so make the best of it.

This is late summer music at its best. This is the band Mountaineer: the project of Hamburg, Germany-based singer-songwriter Henning Wandhoff. Mountaineer has released a few records, and the newest one, titled When the Air is Bright They Shine is a near-perfect pop record. Not a pop record like, say Paris Hilton's, but like the folksy AM radio classics of the 60s and 70s: lush with layers of instrumentation, guitars of the acoustic, slide, and electrified variety, a swinging rhythm section, occasional xylophones, hammond keys, and harmonicas - very much in line with the Kings Of Convenience idea (and album-title) Quiet is the New Loud. It also reminds me a lot of Beck's Sea Change, without so much of the crushing sadness; or indie-fav Jose Gonzalez, as well as his other band, Junip.

Wandhoff has kept a rotating lineup of musicians that play with him, and this time around his album features the talents of Katja Raine (organ, vocals, melodica, kalimba), Fiona McKenzie (drums, percussion), Anna Bertermann (bass, backing vocals) and Alexander Rischer (guitars). Together they craft a tightly woven piece of pop goodness. With ten tracks, just over thirty minutes long, all laden with fuzzy warmth and hazy sunshine, When the Air is Bright They Shine is very timely. I'm looking forward to the so-called indian summer that usually hits NYC in early October, and this will make a great soundtrack for it when it does. Other favorite tracks of mine are "leave it all behind" and "just a breeze" - sweet sweet stuff.

The album - which is being released by the UK's fantastic Type Records - will be available to buy from our friends at Forced Exposure (US) or Boomkat (UK) in early October. Recommended.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-//-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
PS: MFR favorites the Subjects are opening for the French Kicks tonight at Bowery Ballroom in NYC! Come rock out! Aaaaargh!!

Comments

Type delivers the goods yet again!

Posted by: Bruce at September 6, 2006 9:20 PM

I like it. Thanx.

Posted by: peteski at September 9, 2006 10:41 PM

cant download ivanhoe. looks like its gone. :/

Posted by: clark at September 20, 2006 11:37 AM

Yup, sorry Clark - the MP3's are only on the site for 7 days

Posted by: robot Blair at September 20, 2006 12:31 PM
Post a comment









Human verification is easy! Type s in this box to prevent your comment from being rejected:


Remember personal info?

Human verification:

To help us fight the good fight against comment spam, you must enter your anti-spam key as indicated on the left. Don't forget to do this! Your comment may end up in the junk bin if you dont...