The Ascent of Everest

We All Inherit the Moon/Ascent of Everest, The - Split
Author's Rating
Vocals 9
Musicianship 9.5
Lyrics N/A
Production 7
Creativity 6.5
Lasting Value 9
Reviewer Tilt 9.25
Final Verdict: 84%

We All Inherit the Moon/Ascent of Everest, The - Split...
Reviewed by: drunkwithcoffee (04/14/09)
We All Inherit the Moon/The Ascent of Everest - We All Inherit the Moon/The Ascent of Everest Split LP
Record Label: Future Recordings
Release Date: April 13, 2009

The latest Future Recordings project is one that redefines the theme of its discography. This time, the "post-drone" label has brought ambient masterminds We All Inherit the Moon and post-rock wizards The Ascent of Everest together in a seven track split that may very well set the standard for modern day music from the respective genres. The aptitudes of both acts join here to craft an album full of adrenaline rushes and unforgettable meditations.

The first eighteen minutes or so of the album is inhabited by The Ascent of Everest's Godspeed You! Black Emperor-taught progressive indie/post-rock epics, complete with vocals, juggernaut crescendos and captivating gypsy-like string arrangements. The two tracks penetrate ample grandiose territories, at times quiet and beautiful and at times, soaring and completely worthy of a spot on a Lord of the Rings soundtrack. Each note flows flawlessly into the next and every instrument plays in a precise, yet emotional manner, creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere that can be quite crippling if unexpected.

The incorporation of The Ascent of Everest into the split is really what stretches the label's discography; their music alone carries the monumental character necessary to accomplish such a task. Yet one must be meticulous in not forgetting to move on past the opening tracks' enchantment, as there is more to appreciate. Indeed, We All Inherit the Moon juggle the second half with equal dexterity and musical knowledge, evolving their strictly ambient-drone sound on their full-length 5 Song LP to include majestic cellos (as heard in “…and ever. Part III”) and other twinkling novelties, all the while retaining the concise attention span-keeping song structures the band excels in writing.

The second half is really as ambitious as the first, though in a different way – the split allows listeners to track We All Inherit the Moon’s progression, which is noticeable as they refine their sonic character into more mature melody patterns and appropriately placed drones and buzzes. However, both halves boast intriguing first-rate definitions of the word epic, and with seven tracks of “all killer, no filler,” it cannot be emphasized enough how excitingly powerful this split is. I’ll leave it at “absolutely essential soft music record this year” and let the music do the rest.

Recommended If You LikeGodspeed You! Black Emperor, Yndi Halda, Hammock, Mutyumu - Absolute Punk.com

Written by Davis Cox

“I think drums are my favorite instrument because I don’t have to be any good at them. See how I just dropped the beat? It doesn’t matter because I’m not a drummer,” says Devin Lamp, guitarist for Ascent of Everest, as he taps out a beat on the drum set, which I finally identify as Guns ‘n Roses’ “Paradise City.”
Shortly after, Cellist Casey Kaufman whacks me on the arm with her bow after she says something to me and apparently I’m not listening.
As you can tell, it’s a serious night of practice for Ascent of Everest (AOE). A few moments of levity couldn’t hurt anyway, because AOE’s brand of orchestral post-rock doesn’t lend itself to humor. They’re a band with lofty ambitions, having only played a handful of shows around Murfreesboro and Nashville, yet are already beginning work on recording their first full-length album.

They’re also a part of the Angel or the Airbag collective, which, explains Lamp, is “a collective of aspiring artists” around Murfreesboro whose focus isn’t so much on commercial success as it is on encouraging each other in their art.
The collective got its beginning on a website created by Jared Micah as a way to put his paintings, photographs and songs online. He chose the name Angel or the Airbag after a car wreck left him unharmed; while his Christian schoolteachers said there was a divine reason he was able to walk away, he had his own ideas about why he wasn’t hurt.
The website, www.angelortheairbag.com, was largely empty until Micah began to record with a friend (and now guitarist for AOE), Keller McDivitt, and used it to document the sessions. McDivitt suggested they use the site as a way for several of their friends to put their work online.

Currently, the group includes music from AOE and Jared Micah (under the name of Soy de Friendship, though “the name changes pretty often,” he admits), and the artwork of Ellen Luttrell and Yobleart.
"There's no membership badge or anything,” says Micah. “If someone came up to me and wanted to do some stuff and wanted to put it on our site, you could consider them a part of it.”

While Ascent of Everest’s music leans toward the more bombastic and orchestral, Soy de Friendship’s songs are sparse and tinged with folk. Micah utilizes a number of sounds and instruments in his music, from banjos to children’s choirs, and is working with a few musicians to put together a band to perform his songs live.
Though he has recorded music before, he says, “I’m finally doing something I could be happy with musically, but I’m not trying to do anything groundbreaking. Not reinvent the wheel, you know? Just f**k it up a little.”
In addition to his music, Micah co-hosts the radio show “Soul Says, ‘Eat’” with Andrew Werth on WMTS 88.3, the student-run radio station. During the show, the two play anything from experimental, ambient electronic music to psychedelic folk, as well as the “novelty song of the week,” which in the past has included sound collage pranksters Negativland and Hatebeak, a death metal band fronted by none other than a screeching parrot.
Both groups are working on recording albums in their own Zeros and Ones studio, located in the basement of the house where most of the members of AOE live. A dimly lit mess of cables, keyboards, guitars and amps, the studio also serves as AOE’s practice space.



Rather than use a musical palette, Ellen Luttrell and Yobleart create their art on canvas, wood, paper, or any other surface that they deem worthy of being coated in paint. Luttrell’s work is abstract, yet at the same time feels natural. Themes of wood grain run through her work, giving it a feeling of something strange and normal at the same time.
If Luttrell’s paintings seem strange, the work of Yobleart feels like it’s from a different planet. His often brightly colored, sometimes even cartoonish, paintings evoke an almost childlike innocence, yet at times it feels as if there is something possibly sinister lurking in the background. The intricate worlds created in some of his paintings are so detailed that it’s easy to see one of his works several times and notice something new in it each time.
Reading about all of this music and artwork can’t substitute for the real thing, so head over to www.angelortheairbag.com to hear music by Jared Micah and AOE and see paintings by Ellen Luttrell and Yobleart.

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- Little Man Magazine - 1/06

Written by Meghan McNeer

For most bands, it’s not easy to create and record their debut album. There are always last- minute changes to be made, problems with the sound, and hours of recording time before coming out with the satisfying product of your first Dark Side of the Moon. Nashville’s newest post-rock/experimental band is currently recording an album. All work on this album has taken place at the group’s own self-run studio Ones and Zeros, and they intend to release it on their own label. This label, dubbed Angel or the Airbag, is also the name of the art collective the group maintains with other local artists and musicians.

Ascent of Everest have been burning the midnight oil for much of the summer and early fall, hoping to achieve just the right combination of musical precision and spontaneous blasts of electrified density. The result of their labors is a 12” vinyl that comes with a CD-R and is expected out sometime in late fall or early winter. To accompany the record, this ensemble plans to do a bit of touring. Previously, Ascent of Everest have mostly done local show. They aim to do a show with Mono this month, and offers for other gigs keep coming up. However, what makes Ascent of Everest than every other band on the Nashville scene is their sound. Unlike the myriad groups hoping to cash in on the dying trend of alt-country or the even bigger monstrosities jumping on the country-pop bandwagon hoping to be the next Shania Twain or Garth Brooks, Ascent of Everest make music that is as elusively captivating as the very mountain that inspired the group’s moniker. Although “post rock” is a popular and convenient description for this sort of patience-rewarding music, Ascent of Everest are more concerned with bringing textures and aesthetics to their music that generally take a back seat to “Verse-Chorus-Verse”-restrained pop music.

“The thing I like about our music so far is that it is very atmospheric,” says bassist Drew Binkley. “Each song has such feeling about it that portrays a narrative without necessarily explicitly telling the story.” Their songs are certainly long enough to tell an epic story, with a song like “If I Could Move Mountains” clocking in at fifteen minutes of cascading sounds and several others not too far behind. And yet, one gets a sense of cinematic grandeur from these gradually swelling and deliciously amorphous opuses. The songs communicate sentiments that simply cannot be put into words.

The response from musicians and music listeners alike has been almost uniformly positive. Their music has generated plenty of acclaim from admirers around the world, despite the band’s humble ambitions. “We have people in Iowa listening as well as people in Iceland loving it or London wanting more,” says Binkley. White it may be going a bit far to say Ascent of Everest has achieved “international success,” their music will likely appeal to a diverse audience and be heard anywhere that someone might want to relax and enjoy the view for a while.

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- Performer Magazine - 11/05

http://www.thesilentballet.com/articles/rotm/ascentofeverest.html

Nashville, Tennessee calls itself the "Music City" of the United States, but that reference is inevitably lost on anyone who can't remember anything before nu-metal, boy band pop, and grunge. Even those recalling sounds of 80s hair metal and new wave can't conjure up why exactly Nashville is such an "important" city. Forget all of that. In the twenty-first century bands everywhere strive to reinvent the wheel in an attempt to reinvigorate the modern rock world, and although country is still alive and thriving, many of us have long since turned a blind eye in order to witness the creation of something a bit more intangible and personally fulfilling. At one point in time someone dared to label this movement, and the term "post-rock" first invaded the ears of unsuspecting listeners. Many refused a limitation upon the potentials of such a "movement," or that a movement was even in motion at all, and still others sought to mold it into its own bizarre creation. But it was too late, for the seeds had already been planted...

A decade or so later this movement is in full swing in the underground world. Call it what you will -- post-rock, instrumental rock, experimental rock -- there's no denying that something has bitten the young musicians of the world and have inspired them to reach out beyond the compositions of old and stretch the boundaries of contemporary music in ways which almost makes the need for genre labels obsolete. In this world, Nashville is not the music capitol, which is likely bestowed upon Montreal, Canada. In fact, it's barely even on the map, tangential only because Hammock and Emery Reel reside at Franklin and Murfreesboro respectively, a short distance from Nashville. The Ascent of Everest aims to change all of that.

How Lonely Sits the City is the debut album from this young band, who came together only a year ago in its devotion to its craft. The Ascent of Everest suffered not one, but two hard drive malfunctions which basically led them to re-sculpt the album from scratch. The frustration can surely be felt throughout the course of the album, where the band attempts to hammer every nail into position and deliver a perfect, awe-inspiring performance. The resulting work of art hits the spectrum near bands such as Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mount Zion, and Yndi Halda. Presentation is a key component to the work of The Ascent of Everest, and it readily switches forms from guitar driven segments to orchestral upwellings to thick atmospheric drone and ambiance. The segues are often huge and greatly overlapping, which results in some extremely cinematic or cathartic passages. And although the band has only been playing together for a year, the cohesion present between the different members is so great it’s difficult to believe that they haven’t been playing this gig for years.

The Ascent of Everest starts off the album by showing its Explosions in the Sky influence with "Alas! Alas! The Breath of Life!" This melodic ballad travels around the sonic landscape like a graceful ballerina, spinning a grandiose tale of epic proportions. The slow buzz of the guitar slowly works itself into some innocent fluttering, steadily building up momentum as strings and drums are added to the mix. Things can only escalate so much before the drums and guitar take over in true guitar-rock fashion, but also Devin Lamp lends his voice for some very low-key vocals, which supplement the blissful explosion of energy. This optimistic energy plateaus and The Ascent of Everest continue to climb up the mountain. Quick, sharp drum beats anchor a rising violin and the smooth licks of the guitar. The second climb proves to be the one leading to the staggering climax. Someone triggers the reverb and it viciously swarms the sonic landscape in a sweeping motion while the violin punctures the surface with its high wailing. The song then winds down, and How Lonely Sits the City is off to a tremendous start.

Perhaps the most interesting song on the album is "A Threnody (For the Victims of November 2nd)". Those behind on their vocabulary will do well to know that a threnody is a song dedicated to the memory of a deceased person (not to be confused with a "dirge"). Now it's time for a bit of history (see, post-rock can be educational!). "Election Day" in the United States falls between November 2nd and 8th. The portion of the US population who bothered to vote in the last presidential election may recall that it took place on November 2nd, where George W. Bush defeated John Kerry. Throw in some audio commentary from Mario Cuomo (via 1984’s Democratic Convention) with some references to John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity” (the “city on a hill speech”), and the song is ripe with political and religious underpinnings. Let that simmer for five minutes, with a slow, brooding musical foundation that boils over and spills forth from the brim of justice to cleanse the world of its plague of political deception. Or, so we hope. The Ascent of Everest reside within a “red state,” but they aren’t afraid to let their voice be heard, and that is something that we can’t afford to ignore anymore.

“If I Could Move Mountains” ends the five track album with the band in its most ASMZ inspired haze, complete with a composition broken into three movements. Lamp again lends his voice for an acoustically led chant that builds into the most beautiful epiphany on the album, known as “Majesty and Awe”. Afterwards the band recedes back into sparse instrumentation (“Collapse into Understanding”) and very hesitantly rebuilds momentum to conclude with another beautiful finale (“Gathered Hearts Rise and Sing at the First Breath of Dawn”). This time the guitar takes the lead, creating a wave of reverb that the violin rides so effortlessly into the sunset. It’s great to see a band finish off a superb debut with such an appropriately moving last track and really cement their place in the stateside instrumental scene.

The Ascent of Everest set its sight on a crowd pleasing debut album, and with a seemingly endless amount of hard work and dedication it has pulled it off. I can’t say the album is flawless, for there is definitely some room for improvement in the The Descent of Everest, but the band makes a very strong debut effort and shows itself to be tackling some very complicated compositions and utilizing some very sophisticated arrangements. Although the band’s influences are no mystery, it does do a good job of varying between its influences instead of relying too heavily on any single source of inspiration and coming off as a clone. That in combination with a little bit of its own magic makes How Lonely Sits the City quite a pleasant listen for the ears. Undoubtedly this is one of the better instrumental releases from the U.S. in 2006, if not the world at large.


~Jordan Volz
- The Silent Ballet

http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Music/2006/05/18/The_Spin/index.shtml

Ascent of Everest were a seven-piece, string-heavy outfit, and their feely psychedelic post-rock was something like Dirty Three on acid. It was a hell of a show—these guys are Murfreesboro gold. With lush and slow-building songs, sparse vocals and a heavy-lidded female cellist, the band entertained the attentive, yet brooding, crowd. Several people wearing black scooted their chairs center stage and the subsequent hands-in-pockets style head nodding was not only justified, but sincere. - Nashville Scene

The Ascent of Everest

“The Conquer of Everest”

By Paul Cooley



In movies, Directors use sound to evoke feeling in the audience, whether its impending doom waiting behind that door or a warm hug, the music leading up to the event foreshadows what is to come. Also, music itself can create a mood for a scene. It can form an atmosphere of joy or sorrow with just a simple change in sound. Now picture life as the film, full of its many moods and events of joys and sorrows, and imagine a soundtrack to this film. Imagine, even within one song, an amalgam of different emotions meshed to together in one cohesive body of song. “The Ascent of Everest” could be considered the conductors of such a soundtrack. Sharing elements with similar bands such as Sigur Ros, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Explosions in the Sky; The Ascent of Everest has created a unique sound full of swirling textures, Intense and beautiful soundscapes, and exploding crescendos. The emotion that is contained within songs like “If I Could Move Mountains”, builds gently leaving the listener in a blissful aural trance, only to crash and explode in a jubilee of sound and beautiful chaos moments later. This dynamic approach engulfs anyone who lends their ears in a capsule of sound, so epic and enthralling that one is forced to give every note your complete attention.



The Ascent of Everest, who now consists of Devin Lamp on vocals and guitar, Michael Thurmon on drums and other percussion, Drew Binkley on Bass, Casey Kaufman on Cello and strings, Chris Click on piano and mallets, and the originator Keller Mcdivitt on guitar, was inspired in the mind of Keller Mcdivitt two years ago, and I quote “I was dealing with so many things at once, my family moving away, losing what I thought at the time was the love of my life, and the suicide of someone very close to me.” He began writing the basic framework for the tracks AoE now play to help quell the pain of his situation. “I hurt so much and began to see the beauty in all things, even the things that hurt so much. So I wrote these songs to deal with it, well, the majority of them. The basic structure at least.” The 21 year old musician says.



From the seed of these early songs, AoE was beginning to grow. “My roommate and I, his name is Jared, were asked to play a show to open for another friend's band. We had 1 week to prepare. So Jared and I recruited Nathaniel, a friend of ours to play for the show, as we'd decided to play some of the songs I’d written. We came over to Nate's to run through the ideas, and Drew and Casey were there jamming... so we included them. Devin soon came into the picture and we played the show after the 1 week.” Mcdivitt Remembers. “After the show, we realized we loved the music we were making, but Nate was too involved in his other band, so we recruited Michael as our new drummer and the same goes with Chris, but taking Jared’s place. Ever since, we've been writing beautiful music together celebrating life, love, beauty, and everything worth thinking about.”



I took some time to chat with Keller and Michael about their inspirations, passions, and a new record coming out later in the year or early next year.



Paul: The name "The Ascent of Everest" is an interesting one, what led to deciding that as your name?



Keller: “The name The Ascent of Everest represents life struggles in general, overcoming obstacles, achieving the seemingly impossible, and accomplishment. etc. etc. and it flowed very well. The original name was actually "Hallelujah!" but no one knows that!”



Michael: ““Hallelujah!” is the best name I have heard in a long time. We would have so many Christian fans. Maybe God would even lay down some tracks on the album. (Talking to Keller) We should have kept that name.”



Paul: The record you guys are releasing, what is the title? When can it be expected? What can we expect from this release?



Keller: “The record is yet to be titled... its something that I am putting a lot of thought into. these songs are all very, very important to me, and the album as a whole deserves a great title....so I will name it as soon as a collective meaning comes to us. We should be releasing it late fall, on 12" LP with the CD version included. All artwork will be hand printed/stenciled. Expect to be moved.”



Michael: “I’ve already ordered my custom 1974 Chevy with the built in record player. So I can play the LP while cruising around town.”



Paul: You seem very passionate about this upcoming album and the songs contained within it. That's not something really found in music today. So often, Bands really don't really care about what they are doing as long as they get the "scene" points or the money. What do you think about the current music scene(s) around the world right now?





Keller: “The "scene" is a sad one here. I think that counts for most of the US actually. We have been conditioned to be passive listeners, and trend followers. It truly makes my heart ache to see some of our music "fans". People who go to see a beautiful band like Sigur Ros, and talk through the entire set about "indie cred", tattoos, or thrifting is so so so so so sad. There seem to be too few passionate listeners/learners left in the world. 6 of them just happened to find each other and play the perfect instruments to form AoE.”



Michael: “I think you see more and more people noticing independent bands and independent labels. People are starting to realize the fabricated crap that major labels have been feeding them. People want change. There are tons of ways to find new bands on the internet right now. So that is what is happening. People are taking time to search for a band that is meaningful to them.”



Paul: How do you think AoE fits into the scenes?


Kellar: “AoE does not truly fit into a scene really. Well, I mean there are similar bands, even with similar thoughts, ideas, and philosophies, but we just consider ourselves 6 people all madly in love with each other and our music, singing via drones and static at the top of our lungs for the world to truly listen. And think. And question. And except the beauty in all things.”



Michael: “When we first started I didn’t think anything would happen. I didn’t think people would like us. I have been in shock over the response we’ve gotten. I’ve never been a big fan of genres, so I’m not too disappointed that we don’t fit into one. If a hardcore kid loves our music that is great, if a hip hop fanatic loves our music that is great, if Ashlee Simpson fans love our music (pause) I’d be a little perplexed, but that is still great.”





Paul: Now your music has some obvious influences like Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Explosions in the Sky, etc. The bands mentioned above, and you guys put a major focus on the instruments themselves and force the listener to really be "in tune" with what's going on. Do you feel that the "effort" it takes to listen to a 10-20 minute instrumental track is going to keep this music in obscurity for years to come, or is there a possibility of it making breakout into the mainstream. I mean no one would have ever thought hardcore/punk/metal...blah blah would have done what it has today. Also...Sigur Ros is on a major label...



Keller: “I think the "post-rock" genre can and will increase in popularity, and also with this, I see it being whored around like every other genre. I’ve seen it already. Any music that challenges a listener will never be mainstream, at least in our culture. Sigur Ros has managed to gain popularity by just simply being beautiful. No one can resist it. It’s like a rainbow, or a waterfall.” “I’m sure AoE, or any other band of the same style will never truly be mainstream by "industry" standards. BUT, we WILL have passionate listeners. And each of us [bands] that strive for beauty and intimacy with our listeners will touch at least a few lives. Not because we make great music or anything, but because our music is honest.”



Michael: “We won’t be getting radio airplay anytime soon. That is for sure.”





Paul: You guys have a lot of diverse musical influences and that’s great, but music like this usually has external influence, like nature and individuals that really didn't have anything to do with music directly? (I.e. Buried Inside's numerous social critics on "Chronoclast" that they quote and Isis' latest release "Panopticon") Are there any of these outside influences in your music?



Keller: “First, Isis' Panopticon is one of the best records ever recorded.
There [are] a lot of external influence; actually, the majority of our influence is external. From sitting at our local rock quarry watching an intoxicated sunset and waiting until an intoxicated sunrise, to standing beside trains as they speed by, to current events, to love, to beauty. Those are the main things we are inspired by.”



Michael: “Nature is probably a common influence. We have to find beauty in things. The day we stop doing that, is when I stop wanting to continue.”



Paul: If you were take the stage with any two bands that have existed at any time in history, what two would they be and why?



Keller:

“1) (From present time) I would love to play with A Silver Mt. Zion because firstly, they are a big inspiration to us. Also, I think it would just be a great show in general.

2) (From the past) The Left Banke. The Left Banke was way before their time. If you've never heard them, check them out.”


Michael: “Mini-kiss (www.littlemanentertainment.com/) which is a kiss tribute band made up of "little" people and evanescence because I’ve been into them since like October. They totally rock. But seriously, I’m sure everyone's is going to be different. I’m sure we'd all agree on Sigur Ros. That seems to be a common interest among everyone. The music really fits with our lives. It’s hard for a band to leave its fans in tears and awe. But they manage to pull that off every concert and album. My other band would be Wilco. I’m a big fan of Jeff tweedy. I think his the most realistic musician out there. He’ll straight up tell you that music and touring is not what he wants. But he doesn't know any other way. Which I know is true to me. I’m not going to be a doctor or a lawyer. I feel that music is the only way I can move people. So that is what I’ve chosen to do.”



Paul: What is it that you want to invoke into your listeners, what do you wan them to feel when they play your record?



Michael: “I personally want people to feel like they are just as much a part of the band as we are. I want people to feel in their own world after listening to the album. I think we live in such a negative world without much hope. I want people to have hope and to know that they can achieve anything they want.” - Panoptic Journalism