I can still remember the first time that I heard Mountabout’s debut album, ‘Flowers Rot, Brig Me Stones’, because it hit me like a bolt from the blue… an album that was psychologically and spiritually located within an ancient burial chamber in Ireland. Writing about it at the time I said that “I can relate to the idea of liminality when I am listening to music… of letting it take me into a different psychological state, or at least to another place from the the one where my body is inhabiting“… and this was very much the effect that this album had upon me.

Over the course of the year ‘Flowers Rot, Bring Me Stones’ became more and more embedded in my psyche as I experienced its introspective and liminal nature… it somehow took you into that burial chamber and on the sort of journey that the dead themselves might have taken… it struck me as, by its very nature, being a one-off… that level of spirituality and otherworldliness is not something that cannot just be manufactured.

This is why I am pleased that Paddy Shine and Phil Masterson have not tried to repeat the experience… rather look for a different way to express themselves… so while it could be said that their debut was something of an ‘indoor’/ inward looking album, this second offering is something that is far more ‘outdoor’ in its orientation… however as we see from the Bandcamp liner notes, there were some found similarities too:

Getting lost in liminal zones, at thresholds, where boundaries merge is key to the Moundabout sound. The Galtees is an Irish mountain range where the counties Tipperary, Cork and Limerick amalgamate, Shine adds: “We seem to have found ourselves recording and finishing albums in places where the boundaries have become blurry.” 

https://moundabout.bandcamp.com/album/an-cnoc-m-r

This ‘outdoor’ theme is continued later on:

Moundabout has always been about getting out in the surroundings, hiking, swimming, chatting and experimenting with certain substances. An Cnoc Mór was recorded with all those influences… just minus the substances.” Sun, snow, hail and wind, there was no choice but just to be out in it & be inspired. 

https://moundabout.bandcamp.com/album/an-cnoc-m-r

There is something about music which is developed in this way which is deeply appealing to me, the work of Craven Faults being a good recent example, while the above description too me back to one of my favourite books of this century, ‘The Field Guide To Getting Lost’ by Rebecca Solnit, and one of the key texts behind the vibe of this blog. I am really into this idea of wandering and about a focus on the process, which can only be recognised in retrospect, rather than the destination.

This is something that is probably self-evident in a liminal milieu… but not something that can be easily engendered. It is certainly something that is clear from the outset on ‘An Cnoc Mór’. The opener ‘The Hills Hum Hymns’ evokes that feeling of being out in the bleak wilderness of the hills and listening to their stories… providing connections with those who have gone their before with the very earth itself…

Following on from this we find ourselves in the primordial soup that is the first section of ‘Step Out In That’… from which evolves a wonderful psychedelic melody that drags the listener in before fragmenting into a deep liminal space… this is such a powerful track in the way that it evokes in the listener such a distinct feeling of otherness… it is somehow challenging yet comforting.

After that ‘Sacred and Profane’ feels that it is founded on my more solid ground with the interplay of acoustic and electric guitars… that is before the drum machine kicks in. At first this feels quite alien… a presence that seems quite out of keeping with the rest of the album. For me, however, this is quickly resolved when the vocal comes in… trust the process, it might not be linear, but that’s the way I certainly like to wander. Like the rest of the set here, there is a lot of nuance to this track… and no two ways through it seem to be the same…

’Living To Give’ starts with footsteps and the sound of the wind as we set off on another journey of discovery… I am struck by the, and least for me, uniqueness of the sounds… or at least the combination of sounds… but also how, once again, they make sense through deep listening… this is very much an album that you need to put something of yourself into in order to get the most out of it…

Nowhere is this more the case than with ‘Instinct, Eye and Mind’ which, again is an interesting mixture of styles… and having the drum machine underneath what is essentially an instrumental folk ballad feels more and more integrated on repeated listens… and takes it more away from the vibe of the first album… this is very much its own thing and all the better for it… in fact this is the moment when this set just soars… the move to the outward is complete as it feels like we are soaring high about the rugged landscape getting a bird’s eye view of it’s awesome beauty…

Which brings us to ‘The Torrent’ with its repetitive beginning which, once again, grabs the listener and brings them somewhere else… I imagine the glistening beauty and freshness of fast flowing water as the groove seems to deepen… it’s something that does not stop throughout the track giving that sense of continuity until the album finishes almost traditionally… a final nod, perhaps, to the music of Ireland’s past…

Only time will tell whether this album will affect me as much as its predecessor… however, what I can say is that I am once again very much on board with the process, and more than happy to just let it take me… well… wherever… it is truly a record to get lost in… and get lost with… and I look forward to more sessions of disorientation.

’An Cnoc Mór’ is out now on Rocket Recordings.

-o0o-

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