In preparation of Secret Mountains' earthen pyschedelia, the band guides us into the wilderness as foosteps crunch on fallen leaves and the distant woosh of a highway is silenced by the babble of a brook; only then are we aptly prepared to hear Secret Mountains' Rainer LP.
Recorded at Chris and Mickey Freeland's Beat Babies Studio outside of Baltimore, the Rainer LP wastes little time swapping the sneakers out for mountain boots and leaving the cellphone at home, in favor of exploring the terrain beyond the end of the pavement. While Secret Mountains's debut is a powerful excursion through heavy, heady jams that rise, fall, and give way to bright pasteurs, Kelly Laughlin's vocals always climb to the vista of the band's mountainous sound. Secret Mountains is a six-piece that values its 12 arms and 12 legs with every twisting pysche-out and roaring crescendo, but there's one voice bravely cantillating above the caterwaul.
Secret Mountains' Rainer LP is out now on Friends Records.
