Typically, when a band takes some time away from their sonic duties, it allows everyone to find non-music-related things to do, take a bit of a breather and give their brains, limbs and fingers time to readjust to non-studio pursuits. Typically!
But then, When Mountains Speak is not a typical band, and Steven Clarkson isn’t the sort of person to let a band hiatus get between him and creative adventure. His answer to a band break is to head back into the studio alone and continue the journey, on foot, as it were.
Whilst being a solo album, Wanderlust is, like all his recent singular sojourns, released under the When Mountains Speak moniker, and like the more usual band collaborations, explores the idea of music as soundscapes. Music as a formless force, as epic/ambient adventure, rather than a more traditional verse/chorus line. But there are noticeable differences between the whole band and Clarkson, the musical wanderer.
Wanderlust is a less beat-driven album, though there are songs such as Skipping The Scree, which uses gentle raga beats, or Throwing My Stone which employs full kit sounds to add direction and focus. But just as often, as songs such as Pulse prove, the wandering bass lines with their mystical melodies seem to be the guiding hand here. Everything leans more towards a more unrestrained, ambient and out-there sound than the albums with more players, though that is relative, and both formats still overlap significantly.
They Will Not Silence is probably peak Steven-as-a-solo-version-of-the-band. Over 6 minutes and to a metronomic and simple backbeat, he weaves meandering basses and psychedelic guitars, which seem to be washing in from a great distance, possibly even from another dimension. The result is strange, un-song-like (in the very best of ways), and captivating but, in essence, is a perfect example of why the band/Steven has made a name for unconventionality and rule-breaking, albeit in the most clever and creative ways. It feels more like incidental music, possibly the sound score to an H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, thanks to its sense of stalking terror and dark anticipations evoked.
The title track plays us out, guitar-driven, spikey, and the perfect gathering storm of post-rock adventure (depending on your age, for post-rock, read shoegaze, prog-rock, psychedelia or avant-garde…they all seem to mix and mingle on these albums, only the genre labels ever seem to change over time. And labels need not concern us much here.)
What never changes is When Mountains Speaks’ lust for creative life, provocative approach to music making, desire to push and even abolish musical demarcations, and the need to overturn every rock and see what is around the next corner. Wanderlust is a very apt name for what they do musically and a perfect message to be embraced in the other parts of life.