Song of the Day: Black Mountain - Mothers of the Sun

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Afternoon Show with Kevin Cole, is “Mothers of the Sun” by Black Mountain from the 2016 album IV on Jagjaguwar.

Black Mountain - Mothers of the Sun (MP3)

Black Mountain's mixture of texture and force is a potent one, with the Vancouver collective drawing from a variety of heavy and pastoral sounds throughout their four LPs. Founded by Stephen McBean and Joshua Wells near the end of their previous project Jerk with a Bomb, Black Mountain evolved from a eponymous song from those early sessions into one of the most prominent of the prolific McBean's multiple projects. Their 2005 self-titled debut was a critical success, and set the template for the band (currently consisting of McBean, Wells, Jeremy Schmidt, Brad Truax, and Amber Webber), whose touring and recording was steady throughout the end of the decade. After some time spent on other projects, Black Mountain returned earlier this year with their fourth full-length album, the aptly-titled IV. "Mothers of the Sun" both serves as the album's opener and its thesis statement, a striding, miniature epic that maximizes the heavy efficacy every one of its eight minutes. Equally utilizing a sludgy main riff and eerily glowing atmospherics, the tune underscores the band's talent at balancing restraint with crunch – every element of the songs plays a distinct role, sublimely arranged with clockwork precision. (Or at least as much precision an eight-minute psychedelic jam can feasibly have, anyway.) "Mothers of the Sun" is a fantastic return, effortlessly capturing the band's best qualities and channeling them into a winding, expansive eight minutes.

Black Mountain were just in Seattle in support of IV last month, but they'll be touring extensively through the summer. Keep up with the band at their website and Facebook, and watch the video for "Mothers of the Sun" below.