Mt. Oriander/amid The Old Wounds
Split
Im not going to waltz around facts here, this is a sad record, and once Mt. Orianders sole but lengthy song ,You Chip Away Everything that isnt an Elephant starts twinkling multiple clean guitars through your speakers or pods, you will be swept away by its melancholy. Before you know it Keith Latinen, well known from his former, genre defining band Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) jumps head first into an instrumental, soaring upbeat part of Mineral-esque or Penfold-ish intensity that sets the stage for a partly twinkly, partly head-nodding and beautifully told story of childhood nostalgia, as if JD Salinger and Douglas Coupland had a love child, a short story, so vivid, you can almost grasp it. The seemingly everyday setting lulls you in, only to break your heart with its final sentence, fully revealing this is about more than nostalgia. ??On the flipside Daniel Becker takes over the narrative of loss and abandonment and turns loss into letting go, and nostalgia into sad acceptance. His first song ,Field of View" is a brooding, slow paced testimony of a man who is beginning to make peace with ending a fight that cant be won, for the sake of staying healthy, staying alive, but aware of what made him who he is, for better or worse. The short sophomore song ,Hypothetically Speaking I" serves as a passage into Amid the Old Wounds contribution to last years split 7" with Australias No Action, picking up sentiments of not being accepted and expressing awareness that the life settings we grow up with are ok - potentially required - to be questioned, in order to provide peace for your inner child. This may not be your perfect soundtrack to this summers open window ride to the beach, but lets be honest, life isnt always a ride to the beach, is it? Within many of us lies sadness, lies anger, and very often these are symptoms of trauma response caused by loss or negligence, among others. So if you find yourself dealing with sadness, this record might provide one thought that could be most instrumental in getting through: You are not alone.