''Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project'' is a collaboration between

Mirah Mirah (born Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn) is an American musician and songwriter based in Brooklyn, New York. After getting her start in the music scene of Olympia, Washington in the late 1990s, she released a number of well-received solo albums on K ...

and

Ginger Brooks Takahashi Ginger Brooks Takahashi (born July 26, 1977) is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York, and North Braddock, Pennsylvania. A self-identified “punk,” Takahashi grew up in Oregon. She co-founded the feminist genderqueer collective and jou ...

with assorted guests. The album consists of nine full-length songs, interspersed with nine shorter instrumental interludes.

Production

The eighteen-track album was written by Mirah and Takahashi in a secluded house in the

Blue Ridge Mountains The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virgin ...

in 2002, where the friends spent a month writing songs about their experience together, and recording using a Tascam four-track, and a mini-disc recorder. According to Allmusic, "the chirping birds, lonesome train whistles, and buzzing insects that pop up throughout ''Songs from the Black Mountain Music Project'' make it feel like a collection of audio postcards from Takahashi and Mirah's vacation."

Release and reception

K Records K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent mu ...

released the album on August 19, 2003. It received a positive reception from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, who gave it 3.5/5 stars, and praised both the vocals, instrumentals, and whimsical and emotional nature of the songwriting. A reviewer for ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' commented that the album is "a 28-minute

sound collage In music, montage (literally "putting together") or sound collage ("gluing together") is a technique where newly branded sound objects or compositions, including songs, are created from collage, also known as montage. This is often done throug ...

that nestles five or six songs among freeform instrumentals, unprocessed ideas and found sounds", and added that "I don't know what's at the root of this need to bury songs in ephemera, but it's beginning to look a lot like fear of responsibility."

Track listing

*All tracks without noted composer are interludes not listed in the CD liner notes. # "Lil' Bit (Of Baritone)" (Takahashi) # "Birdy Noises" # "Plink Plink Plink" # "The Red Curtain" (Takahashi/M. Zeitlyn) # "The Knife Thrower" (Takahashi/M. Zeitlyn) # "The Party" (Takahashi/M. Zeitlyn) # "Noisy Groove" # "Life You Love" (M. Zeitlyn) # "Plink Plink" # "Broken Mirah" # "Pure" (E. Zeitlyn) # "Acoustic Groove" # "While We Have The Sun" (M. Zeitlyn) # "Horny Groove" # "Rock Of Ages" (Marcus) # "Squocky Groove" # "Oh! September" (Hockel/Takahashi/M. Zeitlyn) # "Buggy Noises"

Personnel

- primary artist, various instruments *Ginger Brooks Takahashi - primary artist, various instruments *Steve Hockel - composer

References

External links

MirahMusic.com
{{Authority control K Records albums 2003 albums Mirah albums Sound collage albums