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. It has a very dense sound composed entirely of distorted bass guitar and loud, pounding drums. 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]

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [2]
BBC Collective [3]
Pitchfork Media (7.3/10)[4]
Stylus Magazine (A-)[5]
Tiny Mix Tapes [6]
The Stranger [7]

Critical response to Hypermagic Mountain was very favorable, with an average of 88% based on 23 reviews on Metacritic.[8] The same site rates the album as #42 on the all-time highest rated albums,[9] and as the fourth best album of 2005.[10] Stylus Magazine's Rogue Strew hailed the album as "another stride toward the perfection of [Lightning Bolt's] prog-noise esthetic",[11] 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."[12] 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."[13]

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. The Wire. http://www.thewire.co.uk/articles/4/print. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 
  2. ^ Allmusic review
  3. ^ BBC Collective review
  4. ^ Pitchfork Media review
  5. ^ Stylus Magazine review
  6. ^ Tiny Mix Tapes review
  7. ^ The Stranger review
  8. ^ "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/lightningbolt/hypermagicmountain?q=hypermagic%20mountain. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  9. ^ "All-Time High and Low Scores". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  10. ^ "Best Albums of 2005". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/2005.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  11. ^ Strew, Rogue. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Stylus Magazine. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/review.php?ID=3486. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  12. ^ Richter, Aaron. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Prefix Magazine. http://www.prefixmag.com/reviews/lightning-bolt/hypermagic-mountain/14635/. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 
  13. ^ Stosuy, Brian. "Hypermagic Mountain – Lightning Bolt". Pitchfork Media. http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19399-hypermagic-mountain?artist_title=19399-hypermagic-mountain. Retrieved 2008-01-14. 

External links