Speck Mountain - Summer Above

Already enjoying a lease of life as a US-import, ‘Summer Above’ has drawn comparisons to The Velvet Underground and Mazzy Star and was voted fifth best album of 2007 by Manchester’s Piccadilly Records.
Recorded in New York and Chicago in 2005 and 2006, ‘Summer Above’ is entirely self-produced. Parts of it were taped in late night sessions at a New York voice-over studio Dubway, where the then-duo were allowed to record from midnight until 6am each day.
The album is ethereal, magical and enthralling; dreamy, psychedelic pop-rock built on organ drones, shimmering guitars and singer Marie-Claire Balabanian’s soft, sedated, honey-dripped vocals. Everything here echoes, and everything glows.
Speck Mountain started out as a band in a Greenpoint, Brooklyn practice space in 2005, named after the first and last words in Brett Easton Ellis’s Glamorama. Karl found Marie-Claire on the internet. Guitarist/tape delay player Kate Name came on board when Karl was living in Portland, Oregon, where she was a fellow former New Yorker. Completing the album in Chicago, the three fell in love with the windy city and decided to relocate there in summer 2007.
 “It’s languid, delicate stuff, filled with deceptively simple melodies and striking vocals, reminiscent of Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval” – Narc.

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