Hypermagic Mountain

Hypermagic Mountain
Studio album by Lightning Bolt
Released October 18, 2005
Recorded Providence, Rhode Island
Genre Noise rock
Experimental rock
Length 56:44
Label Load Records – LOAD #78
Producer Dave Auchenbach
Lightning Bolt chronology
Wonderful Rainbow
(2003)		 Hypermagic Mountain
(2005)		 Earthly Delights
(2009)

Hypermagic Mountain is the fourth album by the noise rock band Lightning Bolt.

Music, Production, and Artwork

The band and their sound engineer, Dave Auchenbach, recorded the album in a house in Providence, Rhode Island directly onto a 2 track DAT master tape.[1] The album is a clear continuation of the sound they established on their previous albums, featuring a very dense sound composed almost entirely of distorted, often-processed bass guitar; loud, fast drums; and indiscernible vocals buried in the album's mix. The album's artwork was drawn by Brian Chippendale; the album's title was not decided until after the artwork was finished.[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]
BBC Collective[4]
Pitchfork Media(7.3/10)[5]
Stylus MagazineA−[6]
Tiny Mix Tapes[7]
The Stranger[8]

Hypermagic Mountain was met with near-universal acclaim, with an average of 88% based on 23 reviews on Metacritic.[9] The same site rates the album as #42 on the all-time highest rated albums,[10] and as the fourth best album of 2005.[11] Stylus Magazine's Rogue Strew hailed the album as "another stride toward the perfection of [Lightning Bolt's] prog-noise esthetic",[12] while Prefix Magazine's Aaron Richter called it Lightning Bolt's "most accomplished effort to date, one-upping 2003’s Wonderful Rainbow with a fresh sense of maturity."[13] Pitchfork Media's Brian Stosuy similarly described Hypermagic Mountain as the band's "most well-oiled album", but criticized that "somewhere in the middle a lack of variety creates a dull patch."[14] Joe Martin, in CMJ New Music Monthly, said that the album's "craft-refinement has an exhilaration all of its own".[15]

Track listing

  1. "2 Morro Morro Land" – 3:43
  2. "Captain Caveman" – 3:19
  3. "Birdy" – 3:06
  4. "Riffwraiths" – 3:03
  5. "Megaghost" – 6:01
  6. "Magic Mountain" – 4:55
  7. "Dead Cowboy" – 7:58
  8. "Bizarro Zarro Land" – 4:47
  9. "Mohawkwindmill" – 9:38
  10. "Bizarro Bike" – 5:18
  11. "Infinity Farm" – 2:46
  12. "No Rest for the Obsessed" – 2:10

Album personnel

References

  1. ↑ Licht, Alan. "Lightning Bolt" (#262, December 2005). The Wire. Retrieved 2008-01-23.
  2. ↑ Weingarten, Christopher (2005). "Deep Cover: Lightning Bolt". CMJ New Music Monthly (136): 50.
  3. ↑ Allmusic review
  4. ↑ BBC Collective review
  5. ↑ Pitchfork Media review
  6. ↑ Stylus Magazine review
  7. ↑ Tiny Mix Tapes review
  8. ↑ The Stranger review
  9. ↑ "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  10. ↑ "All-Time High and Low Scores". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 8, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  11. ↑ "Best Albums of 2005". Metacritic. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  12. ↑ Strew, Rogue. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Stylus Magazine. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  13. ↑ Richter, Aaron. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Prefix Magazine. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  14. ↑ Stosuy, Brian. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 2008-01-14.
  15. ↑ Martin, Joe (2005). "Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain". CMJ New Music Monthly (136): 41.

External links


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