January 31, 2012
#2: Moving Mountains - Waves It seems strange to say this about an album that ended up this high on my list, but I almost didn’t hear Moving Mountains at all. They came to my attention in November, and completely by accident. I was writing a preview article for RVA Magazine’s website about a show Conditions (a great Richmond-based emo band who released my #1 album of 2010, Fluorescent Youth) were headlining. I wanted to say something about the opening bands as well, and one of them, Moving Mountains, was completely unfamiliar to me. I googled them and discovered a two-song video in which they were performing live in a loft space in Brooklyn. The multi-camera footage and professionally recorded sound made clear that this was an organized PR event rather than a true underground live performance, but it was still really cool to see them playing on a living room floor in front of a small but fervent audience. The songs they performed in the video—“Always Only For Me” and “The Cascade,” both from Waves—were excellent, too. They were working in a particular variety of the modern emo sound that I’m a sucker for: dual guitars that strayed from playing in unison whenever possible in favor of divergent but interlocking melodies; clean, pretty lead vocals that were occasionally given extra resonance with the addition of screamed backing vocals; and an underlying heaviness that was carried mostly by the rhythm section, with powerful drumming and low, simple basslines that provide a solid foundation for the single-note guitar leads. That two-song video was enough to send me scrambling for a copy of Moving Mountains’ album. That album, Waves, immediately lived up to my expectations, not only capturing the excellent live sound they’d had on that video throughout the album but revealing an entirely different dimension to their sound. Live, their sound was relatively stripped-down—just the two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. On the album, though, almost every song was augmented with orchestral arrangements. “The Cascade,” my immediate favorite based on the live session, features a string section on the final verse and chorus, with violins adding melody lines on top of the ones carried by the guitar and vocals. For a band with a powerful, rock-based sound, these instrumental additions present a risk; if the string sections overrun the guitar and vocal melodies, or weaken the power of the rhythm section, the song could easily become a syrupy mess. However, due to the decision to leave these orchestral arrangements relatively low in the mix most of the time, they are never overpowering. Instead, the sonic dimensions they add to these songs increases the emotional impact of their wistful melodies without diluting the overall arrangement. Moving Mountains comes closest to syrup territory on “Once Rendering,” a mostly-acoustic ballad with very little contribution from the rhythm section. However, in its position at the album’s halfway point, it represents a breather from the heavier feel of the songs surrounding it and works quite well as such. While I often think of it as my least favorite song on Waves, when I listen to the album all the way through, it feels appropriate in context, and I’m never inclined to skip it. There are many songs here that I do consider my favorites—almost the majority of the album, in fact. Opener “My Life Is Like A Chase Dream (And I’m Still Having Chase Dreams)” starts off with a slow, quiet intro, but once it gets going, its soaring lead guitar riffs and driving chorus make an immediate impression. Moving Mountains don’t place too much emphasis on the post-hardcore aspects of their sound, but in places like the chorus to “My Life Is A Chase Dream,” or the sudden half-time breakdown that appears where it seems like “The Cascade“‘s second chorus should be, they prove their ability to use heavier sounds effectively. Another song on which this talent appears is “Always Only For Me,” which doesn’t have a well-defined chorus, but does feature an excellent mid-song crescendo in which the two vocalists lay down contrasting screamed and melodically sung vocal lines. The emotional feel of this section of the song is heightened soon afterwards when, in conjunction with a downward key change, a horn section comes in. Normally, when one thinks of a horn section, things like the brass charts on old Stax singles come to mind, but this is far different, a moment that instead has the same orchestral feel conjured elsewhere on the album by string sections. The horns play a very similar part to the low root notes that the bass lays down during this section, and provide both a thickening of the song’s basic chord structure and a nice understated contrast to the high, clear vocal part during this section. “Alleviate,” perhaps the only truly uptempo song on this album, is another highlight, featuring lyrics that, like those of “The Cascade” and “My Life Is A Chase Dream,” refer extensively to sleep and dreaming. The way the lyrics combine these topics with references to love and loss calls to mind Armor For Sleep’s 2003 debut album Dream To Make Believe, another post-y2k emo classic, and one of many albums that put the lie to the widespread assumption that the emo genre had nothing to offer once Dashboard Confessional happened. Moving Mountains, like Conditions, Armor For Sleep, and quite a few other groups from the past decade (Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, My Chemical Romance… the list goes on), are making solid contributions to the modern emo genre, proving that hardcore-influenced bands can mature and integrate more overt pop stylings without losing their backbone. Emo’s not dead, y’all.

#2: Moving Mountains - Waves

It seems strange to say this about an album that ended up this high on my list, but I almost didn’t hear Moving Mountains at all. They came to my attention in November, and completely by accident. I was writing a preview article for RVA Magazine’s website about a show Conditions (a great Richmond-based emo band who released my #1 album of 2010, Fluorescent Youth) were headlining. I wanted to say something about the opening bands as well, and one of them, Moving Mountains, was completely unfamiliar to me. I googled them and discovered a two-song video in which they were performing live in a loft space in Brooklyn. The multi-camera footage and professionally recorded sound made clear that this was an organized PR event rather than a true underground live performance, but it was still really cool to see them playing on a living room floor in front of a small but fervent audience.

The songs they performed in the video—“Always Only For Me” and “The Cascade,” both from Waves—were excellent, too. They were working in a particular variety of the modern emo sound that I’m a sucker for: dual guitars that strayed from playing in unison whenever possible in favor of divergent but interlocking melodies; clean, pretty lead vocals that were occasionally given extra resonance with the addition of screamed backing vocals; and an underlying heaviness that was carried mostly by the rhythm section, with powerful drumming and low, simple basslines that provide a solid foundation for the single-note guitar leads. That two-song video was enough to send me scrambling for a copy of Moving Mountains’ album.

That album, Waves, immediately lived up to my expectations, not only capturing the excellent live sound they’d had on that video throughout the album but revealing an entirely different dimension to their sound. Live, their sound was relatively stripped-down—just the two guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. On the album, though, almost every song was augmented with orchestral arrangements. “The Cascade,” my immediate favorite based on the live session, features a string section on the final verse and chorus, with violins adding melody lines on top of the ones carried by the guitar and vocals.

For a band with a powerful, rock-based sound, these instrumental additions present a risk; if the string sections overrun the guitar and vocal melodies, or weaken the power of the rhythm section, the song could easily become a syrupy mess. However, due to the decision to leave these orchestral arrangements relatively low in the mix most of the time, they are never overpowering. Instead, the sonic dimensions they add to these songs increases the emotional impact of their wistful melodies without diluting the overall arrangement. Moving Mountains comes closest to syrup territory on “Once Rendering,” a mostly-acoustic ballad with very little contribution from the rhythm section. However, in its position at the album’s halfway point, it represents a breather from the heavier feel of the songs surrounding it and works quite well as such. While I often think of it as my least favorite song on Waves, when I listen to the album all the way through, it feels appropriate in context, and I’m never inclined to skip it.

There are many songs here that I do consider my favorites—almost the majority of the album, in fact. Opener “My Life Is Like A Chase Dream (And I’m Still Having Chase Dreams)” starts off with a slow, quiet intro, but once it gets going, its soaring lead guitar riffs and driving chorus make an immediate impression. Moving Mountains don’t place too much emphasis on the post-hardcore aspects of their sound, but in places like the chorus to “My Life Is A Chase Dream,” or the sudden half-time breakdown that appears where it seems like “The Cascade“‘s second chorus should be, they prove their ability to use heavier sounds effectively.

Another song on which this talent appears is “Always Only For Me,” which doesn’t have a well-defined chorus, but does feature an excellent mid-song crescendo in which the two vocalists lay down contrasting screamed and melodically sung vocal lines. The emotional feel of this section of the song is heightened soon afterwards when, in conjunction with a downward key change, a horn section comes in. Normally, when one thinks of a horn section, things like the brass charts on old Stax singles come to mind, but this is far different, a moment that instead has the same orchestral feel conjured elsewhere on the album by string sections. The horns play a very similar part to the low root notes that the bass lays down during this section, and provide both a thickening of the song’s basic chord structure and a nice understated contrast to the high, clear vocal part during this section.

“Alleviate,” perhaps the only truly uptempo song on this album, is another highlight, featuring lyrics that, like those of “The Cascade” and “My Life Is A Chase Dream,” refer extensively to sleep and dreaming. The way the lyrics combine these topics with references to love and loss calls to mind Armor For Sleep’s 2003 debut album Dream To Make Believe, another post-y2k emo classic, and one of many albums that put the lie to the widespread assumption that the emo genre had nothing to offer once Dashboard Confessional happened. Moving Mountains, like Conditions, Armor For Sleep, and quite a few other groups from the past decade (Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, My Chemical Romance… the list goes on), are making solid contributions to the modern emo genre, proving that hardcore-influenced bands can mature and integrate more overt pop stylings without losing their backbone. Emo’s not dead, y’all.

2:36pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Z-FUayFh6068
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Top 20 of 2011 
  1. jrichmanesq said: great band, great album. caught the guitarist’s side project, Caravela, last night.
  2. andrewtsks posted this