speck mountain is where liquid organ drones and sacramental guitar lines shimmer in a psychedelically corrupt gospel haze behind marie claire balabanians stevie nicks on downers/hope sandoval on uppers vox. filled in with slow motion funk basslines, electric piano, blanched out sax, one lonely melodica, and enough tape delay to stretch from pacific sea caves all the way to the northern lights - everything here echoes, everything glows. with roots in detroit, portland, and l.a., the three core band members have all finally settled in chicago, and begun to establish a live reputation for extremely textured renditions of karl briedrick and marie claires plaintive space rock songs. their self produced debut, summer above, was recorded at john mcentires soma electronic studios in chicago, and dubway in new york. the sound palette takes in the history of mind-altered music, without sounding like any of it in particular. but the songwriting is direct and emotional, lending itself naturally to multi instrumentalist kate walshs languid soul shadings. and if you hear organic strains of electronica growing in the deeper areas of the mix, then speck mountains sonic alchemy is working, because no synths were used on this record.