Mt. Kili - The Noticer (Self Release) [Alt-Folk]
- The Slow Music Movement
- 22 hours ago
- 1 min read
Hailing from the fertile folk land of Asheville, North Carolina, Mt. Kili are charting their own distinctive course through the genre, but whatever sub-genre(s) you choose to call it, it's evident that band leader and singer Rick Sichta, drummer Matt Shepard, and now Laney Barnett on violin and also chipping in with her voice, play well together.
Sichta's distinctive, down-to-earth voice and acoustic guitar underpins the album, and are a fine guiding light for the meandering album. Kicking off with the straight batting and pertinently entitled, "Don't Start a War", it's not long before Barnett's welcome violin gets involved on the toe-tapping indie-folkish title track, and then adds a more serious undercurrent to the indie-popish "The Rain Song" that soon lollops into view. Just to cement the album's open-minded nature, the encouragingly entitled "The Road Isn't as Long as It Seems" mines more familiar, contemplative folk territory.
And so the album meanders. Enjoy the breathing space in the stripped-back, percussion- forward duet of "Her Song", the melancholic daydream that is "Kyle", as well as the borderline mournful "The Weather Report". Wonder at the pupil dilating "Scars", revel in the gentle roots of "Strawberry Fields" and lean forward to the wise, intimate strains of "All in Good Time", where the instruments and Barnett wisely sit back, content to accentuate rather than distract from the vocal intimacy.
The LP is a wide-angled, somewhat sad-eyed look at the folk spectrum, but its gentle twists and Sichta's unmistakable voice are a roots music lifeline for those drowning in copycat sounds and the worrying influx of AI-folk and computer-country slop.
Playlist Companion
Find Mt. Kili in the Slow Folk Playlist.