A Mountain Of One
‘Institute Of Joy’
(Ten Worlds)

A Mountain Of One are a London duo trying to recapture the scope of Pink Floyd while they channel the gospel of Spiritualized’s recent works. This alone will be enough to secure acclaim from many critical quarters, but the essence of ‘Institute Of Joy’ is a more complex issue than the lofty concept implies. A kaleidoscopic malevolence stalks the finer moments on their debut, but these are too far apart for the album to build a character of its own. Instead, fragments of moody excellence are tempered by too-long periods of little interest and excessive repetition; so, symptomatically, the piano bombast of ‘Lie Awake’ has little effect because it takes too long to get to a tepid, predictable climax, but the bouncing intrigue of ‘Sky Is Folding’ really does evoke serious panic. A mix of emotions that never quite pulls together.

Daniel Ross