When the piano enters Mount Bank’s stunning “Everything Is Glass” single, off the Island Life EP earlier this year on Donky Pitch, the impulse is to think of it as a sample, queued up via Ableton sequencing. The prerequisites of literacy in music, trained on instruments, and learned in theory are being met less and less. To a degree, the most celebrated are those who could be anyone of us with enough curiosity to simply put in the hours like many misinterpretations of Malcolm Gladwell tend to transpire. When listening to Mount Bank, the production alias of Samuel Organ, keep in mind that he’s a pianist by trade, deejay by night, and his melodious nature is not without deeply-rooted thought.
The Brighton-based producer has a way of being uninhibited with influences and conversational. His Portals Mix, was purely a collection of his current favorites ranging from Tim Hecker and Emeralds to label mate The Range. It felt unabashedly linear to the Island Life EP. And so in listening to Mount Bank’s contribution to the Friday Night series, his “Islander Mix”, once again it has continuity to the EP. The “Islander Mix” is not without its departures, namely Inkke’s serenely macabre “Tryna Pull Hoe”, and up front it’s driven by the experimental adventurers in modern r&b. Mount Bank’s Emeralds fascination enters phase two with a remix of “Candy Shoppe” and earlier in the stream he sneaks in an unreleased cut that should not be overlooked. Ultimately, the “Islander Mix” satisfies as a deeper glimpse into the influences and interests of Samuel Organ, while we anticipate his full length later in 2015.
Mount Bank’s Island Life EP is out now on Donky Pitch.
“Islander Mix” tracklisting:
01 Claude Speeed, “Crushed Rave”
02 Inkke, “Tryna Pull Hoe”
03 Toby Gale, “Floodlite”
04 C Cane, “I Want You” feat. TravCamBlaze
05 Mount Bank, “Unreleased”
06 ISLAND, “Sony”
07 Andru, “ELASTIC”
08 Emeralds, “Candy Shoppe” (Mount Bank Remix)
09 Starfoxxx, “Bae HD” (Mount Bank Piano VIP)
