Mountain Movers: Walking After Dark (Vinyl 2xLP)

The current line-up of New Haven’s long running Mountain Movers (guitarist/vocalist Dan Greene, bassist Rick Omonte, guitarist Kryssi Battalene, & drummer Ross Menze) have been playing together for over a decade now, making their recorded debut on a slew of singles released from 2011-2013, but it wasn’t until 2015’s Death Magic (released on New Haven label Safety Meeting) that the potential of that iteration of the group became clear; Mountain Movers are a force of nature.

The camaraderie & sensitivity to each others playing has only grown over time, crystallizing on the group’s trio of albums for Trouble In Mind; 2015’s eponymous Mountain Movers served as a reintroduction of the group to a larger audience, while 2018’s Pink Skies raged like a group confident in its strengths, and 2020’s prescient World What World, written & recorded before the world shut down slightly shifted focus away from the jams & back toward the weight of guitarist/songwriter Dan Greene’s poetic tales of magical realism.

The band’s ninth album Walking After Dark finds a happy medium between both aspects of the band’s strengths; Greene’s lyrical compositions and the group’s long-form improvised jams. To those that are tuned in, that feeling of communion is evident in the Movers’ playing. The members swap & cycle effortlessly through instruments without missing a beat, utilizing the downtime of lockdown to write & record every jam in their practice space. Those piles of tapes would eventually get edited & sequenced into Walking After Dark, a tour-de-force double-album that balances fried, stony brilliance with outré excursions of experimental serenity.

1. Bodega On My Mind / The Sun Shines On The Moon
2. Factory Dream
3. My Holy Shrine
4. Reclamation Yard
5. See The City
6. In The Desert, In The Flood
7. Night Birds In The Trees
8. We Are All Flowers
9. Ice Dream