BeatRoute Magazine AB Edition September 2019

BLACK
MOUNTAIN
Psychrock masterminds break barriers and burn rubber on high octane
space age highway chase By CHRISTINE LEONARD
OLIVIA JAFFE
H
overing over your metropolis
like a sleek black
leviathan, Destroyer is but
the latest vehicle of deliverance
for Vancouver space
rockers Black Mountain.
Armed with digitized pop
tentacles and pulsating
with vintage video game
vibes, the time-travelling album harvests
riffs and rhythms from across decades
and devices. Customarily nonchalant
about their earth-quaking creations,
founding guitarist/lead vocalist Stephen
McBean and lynchpin/keyboardist
Jeremy Schmidt, have always gravitated
towards generating deadly sonic vortexes
that defy chronological classification.
“We’re definitely in tune with our
aesthetic pasts. I guess that’s pretty evident,
just from what our preoccupations
are,” says Schmidt of the new album’s
retro-tronic soundscape. “I feel like the
past is something that’s always revealing
itself. Even though it seems like it’s
all behind us, variations of it seem to
be revealing themselves in the present
and continuing to do so in the future all
the time. So, to me it’s like the past is an
ongoing project.”
Crashing into mid-life with phasing
synths set to stun, Schmidt and McBean
hit the virtual reset button following
the appearance of the band’s previous
full-length release, IV (2016), leaving
them alone in the cockpit for the first
time in years. Approaching an age when
a man’s thoughts might run to HRT and
hot rods, the duo fixed upon the title
Destroyer, a nod to the discontinued
single-run 1985 Dodge testosterone
factory on wheels.
“Steve is actually a new driver. He
recently learned how to drive, so that
kind of informed a couple of the ideas in
an off-handed, casual way.”
The “Boogie Lover” persona that
flows from McBean’s newfound sense of
freedom comes through loud and clear
on new tracks such as the easy ridin’
“Future Shade,” the power mongering
“Horns Arising” and the Manson-child
recruitment anthem “Pretty Little
Lazies.” Pieced together between their
coastal outposts in LA and Vancouver,
the resulting production carries the
weight of Black Mountain’s ample experience
and a burning thirst for untested
waters.
“To me the results sound like a progression,”
Schmidt says. “The record fits
well within the canon of everything else
we’ve done. It seems similar enough to
what we’ve done in the past to sound
like a Black
Mountain record
and different
enough that it
sounds new.”
Determined
to repopulate
their psychedelic
utopia with
a fresh crew
of supporting
players,
the long-time
friends opened
the studio pod
BLACK MOUNTAIN
Saturday, Sept. 14
Vogue Theatre (Vancouver)
Sunday, Sept. 15
Distrikt (Victoria))
Tix: $25, eventbrite.ca
Tuesday, Sept. 17
The Starlite Room
(Edmonton)
Tix: $18, ticketweb.ca
Wednesday, Sept. 18
Commonwealth (Calgary)
Tix:$25, ticketweb.ca
bay doors to a brave new world of artistic
possibilities on Destroyer.
“We’ve always liked the balance of
female and male vocals. It adds a different
kind of narrative and it creates a
dynamic which I think is very appealing
and very much a part of the band,” he
continues. “One could say our ‘happy
place’ is where the organic meets the
electronic. It’s kind of like this yin and
yang thing where the two sort of egg
each other on. Blending artifice and
things that people regard as being more
organic has always been something of
interest to me and the band. In a lot of
ways, it’s the nucleus of our sound.”
Atomic poet/vocalist/keyboardist
18 BEATROUTE SEPTEMBER 2019