The recording project of Boston’s Cole Kinsler, Space Mountain has long been a vehicle for such endeavours. From 2015 debut Gargantua through 2016’s Big Sky, Kinsler explored the confusion and sadness intrinsic to life not through all-consuming melancholy or melodrama, but rather a considered search for the sparks of compassion and connection within this dark, deadbeat existence. The style was further developed on Supermundane, released on Forged Artifacts in 2017, an album which sought to celebrate the simple mercies of life, Kinsler’s distinctive baritone serving as a kind of knowing counterweight.

Space Mountain is back with a brand new album, Togetherness, and, as the title suggests, this time Kinsler is forthright with his intentions. “The record is really about remaining compassionate in spite of the overwhelming sadness and fear in the world,” he explains. Again, this is balanced by the vocal style, any earnestness matched by a world weariness that ensures the songs never become sentimental or trite.

Today we’re delighted to share the lead single ‘Cloud’ as a taster of the new record. Building on the confidence of Supermundane, the track is patient yet probing, the spacing and timing of the emotional peaks as affecting as it is assured. “‘Cloud’ is kind of about acknowledging that fear within myself,” Kinsler says, “and looking for a way to deal with the absurdity.” If an answer is found, then it exists within the confessional yet outward looking tone, dwelling on personal fears not as some exercise in self-absorption but instead a channel for empathy and solidarity. Being human might be difficult, but that doesn’t mean we should lose our humanity.

Togetherness is set for release on the 8th March and you can pre-order it now.

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However, the relatively simplicity of the arrangement says nothing of the detail and scope of the music, as though in this genre there is an inverse relationship between number of instruments and level of detail. Indeed, as his bio states, Atalay’s music “varies in structure and character, ranging from long-form compositions to brief impressionistic explorations of a theme,” and thus through guitar alone he is equally capable of evoking moments in time as he is entire landscapes.

Teaming up with the good folks at Dust Etc. to put out what will be the first album that he has not released himself, this month sees the release of the latest Kerem Atalay, Summer Winter. Performing something of a balancing act between the poles of long form and vignette, the album draws its atmospheric core from the equally antithetical seasons of the title. The good folks at Post-Trash featured lead single ‘Summer 1’ a few weeks ago, a track they described as “warm and vibrant, beaming down like the hot sun and entrenched in long day vibes and late nights […] creep[ing] forward with a winding arpeggiated melody, bright and beautiful, with a sense of wonder.”

We’re super pleased to be able to share ‘Winter 2’, a brand new track from the thematic flip-side of the album. But that’s not to say Kerem Atalay moves away from a sense of wonder. The duality between summer and winter is not easily partitioned into a happy/sad divide, and ‘Winter 2’ could be said to match or even trump the brightness of ‘Summer 1’. This is a track representing early January mornings where the sun stretches shadows and shimmers layers of frost, life emerging from the night before, red cheeked and speckled with an icy light.

Summer Winter will be released on the 22nd June via Dust Etc. and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

Tape design and photographs by Mindy Burgess and Caleb Kong

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“My friend OD and died on heroin. Shit’s rough, so I wrote a bunch of songs to try and work through my emotions. Specifically, I tried to look at the different ways people deal with death. Some fight it, some ignore it, some accept it, and some weirdos embrace it.”

We’re delighted to share the first single from the release. The perfect introduction, ‘Grinch Pt. 1’ sets the tone of the record, combining heavy instrumentation with intimate vocals to capture the strange conflict of emotions that bereavement can cause. The loud guitar presents an almost white noise quality, an unremitting sense of anger and darkness beneath which the lyrics threaten to be lost, though Beavers fights to be heard. However, rather than screaming and yelling, the vocals are instead more focused and considered, a steady attempt at calm thinking amongst chaos (making Beavers’s description of the album notably literal). The sentiment veers from blunt reportage of the situation (“killed himself, hit the vein, got dragged to hell”) to acceptance (“I get that I couldn’t help this time”) to a kind of hopeful guilt, imagining that the right intervention might have been enough after all. The latter, which closes the song (and thus forms the lasting emotion), is not so much self-flagellation over chances missed, but rather a deep need to believe that people can be saved, that the things we can say or do are (or could be) enough to drag people from despair.

“Maybe if I called more often
Maybe if I sang him songs
Maybe if I called him up,
told him that he has my love”

Grinch is set for release via Dust, Etc. on the 2nd February and you can pre-order it now via Bandcamp.

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Following the annual pattern, Space Mountain have just announced a new album, Big Sky. With vocals from Ava Trilling of fellow Boston band Forth Wanderers, lead single ‘Never Lonely’ starts off as a carefree jam before bummed out vocals enter to give the track a summer night vibe, expansive and warm and wistful. From here things shrink inwards, becoming increasingly personal as the song charts a way to rise above loneliness and find peace and connection.

“Met a friend today
And im feeling okay
She’s in my head
I’m never lonely
Sings me to sleep
deeper I creep”

Big Sky is due to be released on the 26th August and you can pre-order it now via the Space Mountain Bandcamp page, or on CD from Dust Etc. and cassette from Super Fan 99 (from 15/08).

Album artwork by Heather Goodwind

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