Mount Eerie, No Kids @ The Ruby Lounge, Manchester (Wotgodforgot) April 5, 2010

Mount Eerie . . .

Washington based indie rock band Mount Eerie represents the latest evolution of Phil Elverum’s musical vision. Formerly known as The Microphones, Phil changed his project’s name to Mount Eerie while maintaining his subtle, lo-fi, and lyrically dense fuzz-folk aesthetic. . . .

What if the sound of wind through trees could be translated into human words? What is it saying? . . .

For Wind’s Poem by Mount Eerie, Phil Elverum spent almost two years out behind the house, at the edge of the woods, listening into the night and finding these words. Songs of impermanence, dark change, destruction, temporary blossoming, mortality, and an immense river of air tearing through the world make up the 3rd offcial album by Mount Eerie. . . .

A hundred kinds of distortion, oceans of synth, and clouds of bass are the elements these twelve songs are built from, with moments of clarity occasionally revealing soft harmonies (featuring Nick Krgovich from Vancouver’s NO KIDS) reverently attempting to describe a dark mystery. The album holds a large debt to the music and world of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, as well as to some of the more innovative artists on the edges of ambient, colossal Black Metal. . . .

Like these influences, Wind’s Poem also drifts back and forth between a “dream world”, where the wind screams about feeting existence, and reality, standing on the street, wide awake, looking at the hills outside town, remembering. . . .

The album is well built, resting on the stone-solid production of Mount Eerie’s only actual member, Phil Elverum, recorded at various locations around his hometown of Anacortes, Washington. In large walls of warm noise you can hear the wind, or is it flames?, or cymbals?, voice-like through the fog. And then all at once the clouds part and a song hangs in the air, soft and clear. . . .

Songs of impermanence sung huge, distorted and warm. . . .

Wind’s Poem is without doubt Phil’s best recording to date. This is what the reviewers thought:-

Tiny Mix Tapes -----
As invigorating as the first half of Wind’s Poem is, its second half is where a filmic sensibility arises and the music becomes at one with the listener, the sounds yielding way to both chaotic and calming images as waves crash and subside. (9/10) . . .

PopMatters ----
The true achievement of Mount Eerie’s Wind’s Poem is the redemptive arc Elverum finds within the black metal context. (9/10) . . .

Drowned In Sound ----
This is a terrifying, wise album (9/10). . .

Pitchfork ----
Phil has moved well beyond the often formless experiments of the early Microphones releases--this is still by no means a record to be digested lightly. And thank goodness for that. (82/100) . . .

Mount Eerie (the full band version featuring two drummers, a gong player and a wall of amps ) on tour in Europe right now to promote the latest album and you can see them at The Ruby Lounge in Manchester on 5th April .. . .

Support from No Kids, Denis Jones and Irma Vep.
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http://www.myspace.com/mounteerieorthemicrophones
http://www.myspace.com/nokidsband
http://www.myspace.com/denisjones