A Grave With No Name - Mountain Debris

Mountain Debris is the first full-length from A Grave With No Name, a haunting, bewitching history of the band thus far and a glimpse of the compelling future that awaits themA Grave With No Name have always mined their own distinctive vein of haunted, freaked folk/ art rock, tracing delicate fissures in the emotional radiography of loss and longing to spellbinding effect. Mountain Debris collects together tracks from their (sold out) releases to date the split 7 single with Natural Numbers and the self-titled EP, released earlier this year and adds a slew of previously unheard recordings, to create a remarkably beautiful and cohesive whole, albeit one that always seems to be on the verge of imploding into itself, so rarefied and brittle is its beauty. But then, nothing about this record is remotely predictable. The fragile, windblown melodies of The Sun Rises and And We Parted Ways at Mt Jade open the album, only to be blown away by the stadium-sized guitars of Sofia , which juxtaposes the galloping drums with AGWWN figurehead Alex Shields odd, affecting refrain of pleased to meet you, I m so sad . Similarly, Silver roars out of the speakers with almost-anthemic immediacy and urgency, while elsewhere the trembling, piano-led Underpass sounds like the most moving song that Palace Music never wrote, and Open Water finds the band on fine, mischievous form. 16 songs long and yet still clocking in at just over half an hour, Mountain Debris is something of a small miracle.

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