Mountain Mirrors - "Voices EP" (self-released 2002)
Vine Sweetland & The Forefathers Of The New Millennium - "Sativa: Single 1" (Mp3.com 2001)
From Aural Innovations #20 (July 2002)
Hot on the heels of their full length CD (see review this issue) Mountain Mirrors has released a 3-song CDEP. I didn't review the full length but from what I remember of the listens I gave it I think I like these songs better. "Eclectic Caravan" is a spacey thudding easy-paced rocker with psychedelic and garage guitars, but all in a very controlled setting. And the vocals add a soulful flavor to the music. "Field Of Grass" picks up the pace a bit, being a psychedelic Led Zeppelin styled rocker that lays down a droning rock base over which soulful Robert Planet sounding vocals and tripped out Jimmy Page guitar wail. Excellent tune. Finally, "Voices" is a collaboration with Vine Sweetland. The music is mucho raga styled psychedelic and includes flowing guitars, drones, synths, and even some cool trippy Blues guitar.
New from Vine Sweetland himself is the Sativa single, a short 2-song CDEP that features tracks recorded during the same sessions as the soon-to-be-released Vine Sweetland & The Forefathers Of The New Millennium CD, but won't be included on that release. "Sativa" is a quirky dancey psychedelic rocker that brings to mind a psychedelic marriage of Devo and Chrome. If that sounds strange... well... it is, but it's a cool song and has grown on me. "Raga Bhanga" is completely different and truly lives up to it's name. It consists of cosmic Indian influenced ragas complete with tablas, flutes, and sitar by Rahul Sakyaputra (see review of his CD this issue). Two excellent and very different tunes that have me fired up to hear the new Vine Sweetland release.
Both artists have loads of tracks available to hear at their Mp3.com web sites. Visit Mountain Mirrors at: http://www.mp3.com/mountain_mirrors and Vine Sweetland at: http://www.mp3.com/VineSweetland.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz