Mountain Range – A Heart Upon EP 7.4

                Here’s where happy music resides. This is quirky, twee electronic music. Mountain Range creates delicate soundscapes, hence all the tiny, twinkling sounds. Beats are on here but they tend to take a backseat to the melodies and rhythms. For the vast majority of the album they stay out of the way, remaining near silent as the tones configure themselves around each other. Only once the song has fully formed around a rhythm do the beats bother to arrive. 

                One can hear this approach on the opener ‘With Skates’. It has a few sections which could even be considered ambient. ‘Evelyn(e)’ takes the approach further. Samples permeate the song. A little piano tries to break through to us. Yet it works against the rest of the elements, the slow-moving beat, and the gentle organ. Part of the joy is hearing these pieces work with and against each other. It is a little better having the sample cut off. In the finale Mountain Range get particularly ambitious. Here’s where sudden glitches come to play, shifting the song in and out of focus. Actually it may be the most active piece on the entire EP. Multiple rhythms work with each reaching an IDM-like conclusion. 

                This is a sweet EP. I feel it is aptly named. Everything on here suggests warm and kindness. As an example of the tenderness, there’s even a remix by Ole Torjus for the song ‘Evelyn(e)’ which keeps the sweetness of that song intact. Overall it is a consistent EP.