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Speck Mountain

MusicBlog

"Shame on the soul that..."

Location: Chicago

Website: http://www.burntbrownsounds.com

Bio: It's been a big year for Speck Mountain, their debut, Summer Above, has been a bit of a sleeper, stateside, while reaching the 5 spot ... (more) in Piccadilly Records influential Year-End Best List (even before being officially released in England!), and subsequently being picked up by Peace Frog for the U.K. and rest of the world. East and West coast U.S. tours, substantial gigging in their newly adopted hometown of Chicago, and a CMJ showcase have allowed them to find a new, loose sound based on the two distinct guitar styles of song-writers Karl Briedrick and Marie-Claire Balabanian, Marie-Claire's startlingly mature vocal presence, and the plangent drones of Kate Walsh's vintage organ and piano. All of which is evident on their new single, "Blood Is Clean". The A-side is a Valet song from just this year that Speck Mountain have turned up the rock quotient on significantly, courtesy of sax, an age's old bass mantra, and Marie-Claire's barbed guitar attack, transplanted direct from the most severely dosed basement on earth. On the flip, "Backslide" approaches the kind of wide-eyed gratification that electronica has promised in the past--but rarely delivered--with several degrees of treated organ pulsating around Karl's sweetly protracted guitar tease. So here are two sides of Speck Mountain, showing the breadth of their vision. The depth is being sounded out now as they record their second full-length at Soma studios... (less)