Sidewalk Chalk – When Mountains Speak (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

When you have written so much about one band, as I have with When Mountains Speak, it is sometimes daunting to be faced with a new release. I often wonder if there is anything new that I can say, some aspect of the music that I haven’t already discussed at length. And given the pace of Steven Clarkson’s output, it is sure to happen at some point.

But the great thing about the music he makes under this moniker is that once you find yourself immersed in it’s sonic charms, whether meditative, melodic or more muscular in tone, the mind gets carried along with it and, as all good music is capable of doing, finds itself stimulated, thinking laterally, at tangents, considering other possibilities.

Although some of the music found here can be quite abrasive, the opener, “Scree Part 1”, is undoubtedly a challenging blend of raw psychedelic guitar and post-rock non-structures; there is still something quite meditative about it, despite, or more likely because of, its purposeful lack of form. Perhaps it is the fact that you can’t anticipate what might come next that means that you have to relax the mind and go with the flow.

“Dust on Tibetan Sheets” is perhaps more typical of what such mindful mood music is all about. Loose grooves and chaotic percussion build shapes that everything from psych-trance guitars to short bursts bass lines to blustering saxophones can, and indeed do, wander through. The title track takes these same oft-cacophonous elements and threads them through a strange jazz scape, the piano lines and the prayer bells, the late night saxophone and the tabla beats making for that wonderful occident meets Orient fusion that has always been present in When Mountains Speak.

And if “Soft Zen” is a mercurial blend of beat and beauty, chaos and creativity, a sort of anagram of music reassembled for a more free-thinking audience, “Servitude” is a cool coalition of spacious atmospherics and guitars that seem to be drilling down to the centre of the earth.

So, it seems I can find something new to say about When Mountains Speak, and that is because it is always doing something new, continually redefining what music can be, constantly pushing the boundaries and heading into the unknown. In that regard, Steven Clarkson makes music that is as much academic as it is entertainment, designed to raise questions rather than give answers. Some of his output exists in a realm where many people might define it as pushing into art or noise or confrontation. And that would be fair, but it does mean that you then have to think about what music is…and that is a great conversation to have.