mountaineer

When The Air Is Bright They Shine

Mountaineer's new album 'When The Air Is Bright They Shine' opens with a track called 'A Town Called Ivanhoe' - wherein a charming confection of lilting acoustic threads are weaved around a heart that beats to the sound of Jose Gonzales, Jim O'Rouke and Kings Of Convenience. It's soothing and vibrant at the same time - not an easy juxtaposition to pull off successfully. Yet, harking from Ashby de la Zouch - a town who's main claim to fame is it's link to Ivanhoe - I can assure you that playing something like this on a Saturday night down the town centre would earn you a happy slapping of mediaeval proportions from the feral hooded hordes... Shelving such geographical concerns for now, Mountaineer began life as the project of German singer and songwriter Henning Wandhoff - with the release of his first LP 'Sunny Day' resulting in the recruitment of a full band (Katja Raine, Fiona Mckenzie, Anna Bertermann and Alexander Rischer) who could bring his wide-screen vision to life. The kind of pop music that sheds all extraneous aural flab to deliver a pure dose of inspirational joy, 'When The Air Is Bright They Shine' clocks in at under forty minutes and harks back to the glory days of vinyl in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Evidently schooled in the melodic structures of Vitamin-C drenched West Coast pop, Mountaineer follow 'A Town Called Ivanhoe' with the woozy heat haze of 'A Line For Every Letter'; as a trickle of acoustic guitar massage the glinting backdrop to create a sound that recalls Beck's 'Sea Change'. Blessed with a gravelly timbre that is smooth as warm honey, Wandoff's real skill lies in the ability to mesh complex song structures and a lightness of touch that snags the ear and coaxes you ever deeper into the music. With the likes of 'Leave It All Behind', 'Company' and 'Morning Mist' all fanning the emotional fire with gorgeous slide guitar and Wandoff's grumbling larynx, 'When The Air Is Bright They Shine' is the kind of record that gives pop a good name and is quite potentially Type's biggest release to date. A real pleasure from start to finish.