Mountain People - Mountain006

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  • How deep is too deep? That seems to be the question you have to ask when approaching Mountain People's latest. Ostensibly set up in homage to The Mole People's deep house classic "Break Night," the label/artist Mountain People has been on a steadily reductive path since its inception, telescoping with each subsequent release down to the barest slivers of sound. So while the expression "making a mountain out of a molehill" connotes exaggeration and hyperbole, the mountain made here has curiously wound up smaller than its source. One wonders whether the crew believes it's on the ascent or descent: are these barely-there grooves supposed to form the mountain's base, or do they represent its arid peak, where only a few stray oxygen molecules keep you breathing? That's all to say that those looking for the deep house splendor of the earlier releases may feel a bit underfed here by the extreme sparseness and lack of movement. Mountain People 006 is made of two warm, rolling groovers that don't seem to yield much on first listen, and ultimately it's a matter of taste whether you find their unrelenting stasis compelling or soporific. Whatever your take on minimalism in music and on the limits of its ability to induce hypnotic states, you can't really front on the production, which remains as nimble and meticulous as ever. On 006.1 check out the spritely dashes of hi-hats and cymbals, and the indecipherable woman's voice that murks around the groove like a spooked forest creature. Besides those touches, however, it's a nearly skeletal composition, something like a transmutation of what Erik Satie called "furniture music": So immobile you could put your feet up on it. 006.2 has a hat-led jacking pulse that makes it a bit meatier than its counterpart but one wonders why the rather-cliched "house music" vocal sample is particularly necessary. Oddly, or maybe tellingly, track 006.3 doesn't show up on the vinyl at all, being instead relegated to the status of a Beatport exclusive. It's a shame considering it's the most solid tune of the three, a straight-up house jam with well-placed filter shimmer and down-beat bass poke. Maybe it got in the way of the merciless aesthetic purification—let's hope Mountain People 007 isn't a John Cage cover.
  • Tracklist
      A Mountain006.1 B Mountain006.2 Digital Exclusive: Mountain006.3
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