Mountain Caller’s latest release, Chronicle II: Hypergenesis (Church Road Records), is the much-anticipated follow-up LP to 2020’s Chronicle I: The Truthseeker. The London-based three-piece (Claire Simson on guitar, El Reeve on bass, and Max Maxwell on drums) perform mostly instrumental music that (so it is said) “[transcends] language and [communicates] through the universal language of sound”.
And, true to the words of the press hype in question, Hypergenesis does indeed cross musical boundaries in a way that, whilst not entirely new, feels burstingly fresh and urgent.
Sparse patches of vocals (by Simson?) flow and grind over distorted fuzz bass, jazz chords, irregular time signatures and utterly atom-smashing post-rock doom-sludge-prog-thrash. “Your words will shake the world” is a lyric from “Dead Language”, and indeed they do.
Mostly, though, we are left vocal-less and to our own devices through which to interpret the universal language of sonic vibrations as we see fit.
And the fit is solid as a rock. Mountain Caller couldn’t be tighter if they tried, and the dynamic range (from the most tiny of Jazz sidesticks to epically engulfing flames of violent doom) is exquisite. This is music that keeps you waiting for the “drop” but drip-feeds teaser by melancholic teaser in the form of ostinatos, pure rock guitar solos, and other tidbits which preempt the coming headbang-fest that most tracks bring at their zenith.
The disparate influences here fit together seamlessly — a barometer of “good” prog rock, from my perspective.
The record demands to be listened to as a whole journey, so pulling out highlights seems fruitless. Hypergenesis does indeed feel like a supercharged rebirth. It’s a trip a lot of people might benefit from if they’re able to navigate towards the loving caress on the other side of these choppy and (to some) galling waters.
On some tracks, the heavy parts are an absolutely unbridled caution-to-the-wind joy. Then the sadness always hits again. Hard. At the end of the record, on the title track, the band somehow manage to fuse uplifting gospel with aggressive progressive punk doom. Don’t ask me how, but it couldn’t work better.
I don’t think any rulebooks were permanently harmed in the making of this record, but it certainly feels as though a lot of pages were ripped up, burned, and offered up to the gods of fantastical prog-doom.
It’s Sabbath, it’s King Crimson, it’s Black Flag, it’s Miles Davis, it’s Frayle, it’s Anna Von Hauswolff, it’s PJ Harvey, it’s Neurosis.
Mostly, it’s Mountain Caller.
If you like those you’ll get on like a beautifully tortured and lovingly sad house on fire.
Buy the album here:
https://mountaincaller.bandcamp.com/album/chronicle-ii-hypergenesis
9 / 10
DUNCAN EVANS