Island of Lost Souls
Kiwi drone pop mainstay Roy Montgomery celebrates four decades of activity with a fresh set of shimmering moods, joining the dots between Slowdive's "Pygmalion" and Vangelis's legendary "Blade Runner" OST. Seriously it's that good.
We're not sure why New Zealand's Roy Montgomery isn't more widely appreciated; he's been working tirelessly for forty years at this point, and while his particular brand of exquisite dream pop is still consigned to the underground, his imitators are too numerous to mention. "Island of Lost Souls" is the first of four albums slated for release this year and serves as a welcome reminder of his compositional skill and restraint. Comprising four long tracks, the album is a sequence of dedications to some of Montgomery's biggest influences. Opener 'Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)' sounds like an effervescent shoegaze reimagining of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygene", but considering the recently-passed American playwright and actor, you could almost hear it alongside Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven", humming gently over the infinite sunset.
Each piece is built from transcendent layers of reverberating guitar, dense with harmony and dancing with flutter. If My Bloody Valentine showed one extreme this suggests another, a crushing quietness where extremity is found in meaning, resolve and discipline. This is never more evident on the album's epic closer, 'The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)', a track that honors the Popol Vuh founder and godfather of kosmische music, influenced by the 2nd century nun who inspired hundreds of years of music, science and theology. Musically, Montgomery wears his Fricke appreciation on his sleeve here, evoking fond memories of "Hosianna Mantra" with rhythmic, chiming strums that whirlpool into a blissful, transcendent abyss.
This is a cosmic corner of the musical universe that's often visited but rarely respected or explored successfully. For some reason, the crossover with new age attracts rogue elements, but hearing Montgomery in his comfort zone just reminds us how supreme the dream pop/kosmische crossover is when approached with sincerity and caution.
This one's going to be on rotation for a while - it's divine.
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Kiwi drone pop mainstay Roy Montgomery celebrates four decades of activity with a fresh set of shimmering moods, joining the dots between Slowdive's "Pygmalion" and Vangelis's legendary "Blade Runner" OST. Seriously it's that good.
We're not sure why New Zealand's Roy Montgomery isn't more widely appreciated; he's been working tirelessly for forty years at this point, and while his particular brand of exquisite dream pop is still consigned to the underground, his imitators are too numerous to mention. "Island of Lost Souls" is the first of four albums slated for release this year and serves as a welcome reminder of his compositional skill and restraint. Comprising four long tracks, the album is a sequence of dedications to some of Montgomery's biggest influences. Opener 'Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)' sounds like an effervescent shoegaze reimagining of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygene", but considering the recently-passed American playwright and actor, you could almost hear it alongside Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven", humming gently over the infinite sunset.
Each piece is built from transcendent layers of reverberating guitar, dense with harmony and dancing with flutter. If My Bloody Valentine showed one extreme this suggests another, a crushing quietness where extremity is found in meaning, resolve and discipline. This is never more evident on the album's epic closer, 'The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)', a track that honors the Popol Vuh founder and godfather of kosmische music, influenced by the 2nd century nun who inspired hundreds of years of music, science and theology. Musically, Montgomery wears his Fricke appreciation on his sleeve here, evoking fond memories of "Hosianna Mantra" with rhythmic, chiming strums that whirlpool into a blissful, transcendent abyss.
This is a cosmic corner of the musical universe that's often visited but rarely respected or explored successfully. For some reason, the crossover with new age attracts rogue elements, but hearing Montgomery in his comfort zone just reminds us how supreme the dream pop/kosmische crossover is when approached with sincerity and caution.
This one's going to be on rotation for a while - it's divine.
Kiwi drone pop mainstay Roy Montgomery celebrates four decades of activity with a fresh set of shimmering moods, joining the dots between Slowdive's "Pygmalion" and Vangelis's legendary "Blade Runner" OST. Seriously it's that good.
We're not sure why New Zealand's Roy Montgomery isn't more widely appreciated; he's been working tirelessly for forty years at this point, and while his particular brand of exquisite dream pop is still consigned to the underground, his imitators are too numerous to mention. "Island of Lost Souls" is the first of four albums slated for release this year and serves as a welcome reminder of his compositional skill and restraint. Comprising four long tracks, the album is a sequence of dedications to some of Montgomery's biggest influences. Opener 'Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)' sounds like an effervescent shoegaze reimagining of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygene", but considering the recently-passed American playwright and actor, you could almost hear it alongside Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven", humming gently over the infinite sunset.
Each piece is built from transcendent layers of reverberating guitar, dense with harmony and dancing with flutter. If My Bloody Valentine showed one extreme this suggests another, a crushing quietness where extremity is found in meaning, resolve and discipline. This is never more evident on the album's epic closer, 'The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)', a track that honors the Popol Vuh founder and godfather of kosmische music, influenced by the 2nd century nun who inspired hundreds of years of music, science and theology. Musically, Montgomery wears his Fricke appreciation on his sleeve here, evoking fond memories of "Hosianna Mantra" with rhythmic, chiming strums that whirlpool into a blissful, transcendent abyss.
This is a cosmic corner of the musical universe that's often visited but rarely respected or explored successfully. For some reason, the crossover with new age attracts rogue elements, but hearing Montgomery in his comfort zone just reminds us how supreme the dream pop/kosmische crossover is when approached with sincerity and caution.
This one's going to be on rotation for a while - it's divine.
Kiwi drone pop mainstay Roy Montgomery celebrates four decades of activity with a fresh set of shimmering moods, joining the dots between Slowdive's "Pygmalion" and Vangelis's legendary "Blade Runner" OST. Seriously it's that good.
We're not sure why New Zealand's Roy Montgomery isn't more widely appreciated; he's been working tirelessly for forty years at this point, and while his particular brand of exquisite dream pop is still consigned to the underground, his imitators are too numerous to mention. "Island of Lost Souls" is the first of four albums slated for release this year and serves as a welcome reminder of his compositional skill and restraint. Comprising four long tracks, the album is a sequence of dedications to some of Montgomery's biggest influences. Opener 'Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)' sounds like an effervescent shoegaze reimagining of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygene", but considering the recently-passed American playwright and actor, you could almost hear it alongside Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven", humming gently over the infinite sunset.
Each piece is built from transcendent layers of reverberating guitar, dense with harmony and dancing with flutter. If My Bloody Valentine showed one extreme this suggests another, a crushing quietness where extremity is found in meaning, resolve and discipline. This is never more evident on the album's epic closer, 'The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)', a track that honors the Popol Vuh founder and godfather of kosmische music, influenced by the 2nd century nun who inspired hundreds of years of music, science and theology. Musically, Montgomery wears his Fricke appreciation on his sleeve here, evoking fond memories of "Hosianna Mantra" with rhythmic, chiming strums that whirlpool into a blissful, transcendent abyss.
This is a cosmic corner of the musical universe that's often visited but rarely respected or explored successfully. For some reason, the crossover with new age attracts rogue elements, but hearing Montgomery in his comfort zone just reminds us how supreme the dream pop/kosmische crossover is when approached with sincerity and caution.
This one's going to be on rotation for a while - it's divine.
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Kiwi drone pop mainstay Roy Montgomery celebrates four decades of activity with a fresh set of shimmering moods, joining the dots between Slowdive's "Pygmalion" and Vangelis's legendary "Blade Runner" OST. Seriously it's that good.
We're not sure why New Zealand's Roy Montgomery isn't more widely appreciated; he's been working tirelessly for forty years at this point, and while his particular brand of exquisite dream pop is still consigned to the underground, his imitators are too numerous to mention. "Island of Lost Souls" is the first of four albums slated for release this year and serves as a welcome reminder of his compositional skill and restraint. Comprising four long tracks, the album is a sequence of dedications to some of Montgomery's biggest influences. Opener 'Cowboy Mouth (For Sam Shepard)' sounds like an effervescent shoegaze reimagining of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygene", but considering the recently-passed American playwright and actor, you could almost hear it alongside Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven", humming gently over the infinite sunset.
Each piece is built from transcendent layers of reverberating guitar, dense with harmony and dancing with flutter. If My Bloody Valentine showed one extreme this suggests another, a crushing quietness where extremity is found in meaning, resolve and discipline. This is never more evident on the album's epic closer, 'The Electric Children of Hildegard von Bingen (For Florian Fricke)', a track that honors the Popol Vuh founder and godfather of kosmische music, influenced by the 2nd century nun who inspired hundreds of years of music, science and theology. Musically, Montgomery wears his Fricke appreciation on his sleeve here, evoking fond memories of "Hosianna Mantra" with rhythmic, chiming strums that whirlpool into a blissful, transcendent abyss.
This is a cosmic corner of the musical universe that's often visited but rarely respected or explored successfully. For some reason, the crossover with new age attracts rogue elements, but hearing Montgomery in his comfort zone just reminds us how supreme the dream pop/kosmische crossover is when approached with sincerity and caution.
This one's going to be on rotation for a while - it's divine.