Review Summary: Indie-dance quartet Bear Mountain get off to a lovely - if limited - start with debut ep XO.
Bear Mountain is a Vancouver-based indie dance quartet whose first EP, XO, was released in August (or May, depending on who you ask) of 2013. Having supported bands like Bloc Party and Hot Chip in such prestigious festivals as Lollapalooza and the Governor's Ball, their songs have been featured on Canadian radio stations on numerous occasions.
Before I get too far into this review, it should be made clear that there are two versions of XO. On the more widely-known digital version, the song order and roster is (or was, there may have been an update) slightly different, also, the CD version has curiously omitted all samples. I am a chronic CD buyer, so when I realized that Bear Mountain was distributing a physical version of their EP, I had to buy it, and the lack of samples seemed distancing somehow. If you listen to progressive at all, compare it to the first time you heard the version of "Roquefort" with Empire Horns, realizing that you could never listen to the album version again without it seeming stale. Because I like the digital version better, and because again, it's more widely-heard, I'll be reviewing it rather than the physical. If you are like me, and try to buy CDs or vinyl as much as possible, keep in mind that my score for the physical is about a 3.0, just because of the lack of the texture-enhancing, mood-altering samples. If you're fine without samples, go for it, but you're missing out.
The opener, "Two Step," caught me as soon as I heard it. The samples, from some old-timey movie, don't really do anything to enhance the concept, but they help further XO's groove. It has a get-pumped feel to it, there's no doubt about it, and this instrumental anthem was born to be danced to. It is, however, incredibly repetitive, as you'll find with much of the album. It's like club music, in fact, it is club music, even in its alt-indie wonder. Think Martin Solveig's "Hello," how its simplistic repetition would open it up for criticism was it not a dance song.
One thing this band does well is mix live and electronic instrumentation. It gives an effect similar to (but not quite as good as) that of electrocore greats 65daysofstatic. The synths blend nicely with the creamy guitar tones, and while the live drums don't sound as good as, say, North Atlantic Oscillation's, they are still welcome in an otherwise digital landscape.
The main snag that XO seems to get stuck on is the lack of interesting ideas. While this is in fact a dance album, the absence of deadmau5-esque hooks or more than two sections per song gets old unfortunately fast. I want to like XO even more, and had Bear Mountain included some crazy leads or something to make this more than just a dance album, it would get a higher score. In the meantime, the chronic repetition of songs like "Swim" distract from the excellently measured simplicity of songs like "Two Step" and their wonderful cover of Germany, Germany's "Survive."
Fortunately, while most of the album is in fact instrumental, when the vocals come in, they come in with a bang. Frontman Ian Bevis has an incredibly rich voice, akin to that of alt-J's Joe Newman. The lyrics are, well, dance lyrics, although "Faded" does have some lovely moments on them, but in the hands of a powerful singer like Bevis, the strength of the lyrics is secondary to the strength of the voice.
In short, Bear Mountain have made an album worth buying, with samples and beats blending wonderfully over top of unfortunately limited writing.
Key Tracks: "Two Step" "Survive" "See You Through"
