Mountain Man - Made The Harbor
Since coming together only last year, Vermont trio Mountain Man have forged a reputation for delivering live performances of an exceptionally intimate nature. Their earliest shows consisted simply of the three college friends (Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig & Amelia Randall Meath) singing unaccompanied in a closed circle, usually without microphones. The microphones were on board by the time the girls rode up to Dublin’s Crawdaddy in July, but the feeling of something intensely intimate had not diminished: the girls were in stoned, giggly form, but their predominantly a capella take on Appalachian folk was beautifully turned, resulting in one of the most memorable gigs of the year.
The good news is that much of that primal intimacy has also managed to find its way on to record; indeed, little or nothing has been lost in the process of recording their superb voices and great songs for this Bella Union debut. The three-part harmonies are stunning to behold, and thankfully no bells or whistles have been added to what is a determinedly sparse record. Occasionally a guitar is gently picked, but, apart from some tape hiss and the odd false-start, there’s precious little to distract the attention on Made The Harbor – it really is all about those amazing voices.
But that’s not all. If you think freewheeling 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'-aping a capella folk music sounds like the sort of staid, earnest pursuit that’s perhaps best left to ageing Uncut readers, then Mountain Man have a few surprises in store. There’s an undeniably keen sensuality at work on Made The Harbor that you normally wouldn’t expect from the genre. “When you wake up, I will be covered in milky sweat”, they sing on ‘Arabella’. Album highlight ‘Soft Skin’ is undoubtedly the hottest song of the year: “We shake and fall from the wall to the hard, hot floor... Beat me down into the floor tonight”. Sex is on fire here for sure, but thankfully it’s about as far away from latter-day Kings Of Leon as you can get.
There have been few quieter, more unassuming records made in 2010, but even fewer that have announced themselves so emphatically. As Made The Harbor flows to a close with the haunting ‘River’, it signals a job well done and the emergence of something very special indeed.
Mini review
Mountain Man’s show at Dublin’s Crawdaddy was one of the highlights of the year, and their debut album was no less special. These college friends’ three-part harmonies are a thing of rare beauty, and were here afforded all the space in the world to resonate, accompanied only by an occasional guitar – and often by nothing at all. ‘How’m I Doin’’ was like a more playful modern-day Nina Simone, but it was the hot-and-steamy likes of ‘Soft Skin’ which elevated the record into a rarefied space. (Review)
In your words