Lightning Bolt's 2003 album Wonderful Rainbow just kept getting bigger and bigger, like a 16-ton amplifier falling out of the noon sky. Its bass tone squashed round heads into wrecked ellipses, and the drums chattered away as if on a chain drive. The album was the opposite of Excedrin, a tension headache in ten movements. Lightning Bolt have done it again with 2005's Hypermagic Mountain. It's hard to say this is accessible; besides, if you did say that, no one would hear it anyway. But bassist Brian Gibson and drummer/default vocalist Brian Chippendal build an addictive structure into the manic pulse of "Captain Caveman," and "Riffwraiths" -- musicians' biggest fear next to unreliable drummers -- sounds like a song's break extended to three explosive minutes. And while Chippendale's vocals on "Birdy" are a distracting non-factor, its rhythmic throb is more relentless than a carbon-arc strobe light with no off switch. None of this is melodic in the traditional sense; Wonderful Rainbow wasn't, either. But Lightning Bolt's music beckons from a more elemental place, as a ferocious distillation of shattered punk fury, dance music release, and the purposely weird. Closer "For the Obsessed" ends abruptly in mid-freak-out, giving the silence that follows its own electricity, and in "Bizarro Zarro Land" Gibson and Chippendale are heavy metal soloists fighting to the death. What makes Hypermagic even more heroic beyond its immediate rhythmic grip is the musicianship, the furious dedication to a hyper, jagged groove. Longer tracks like "Dead Cowboy" and "Mohawk Windmill" build into giant fractals of epic noise, with weird little filigrees stolen from old Yes albums bursting forth from roaring bass guitar and splattering drum rolls. At its most chaotic, Hypermagic Mountain could tear open a wormhole into Comets on Fire's Blue Cathedral. It's clear that Lightning Bolt reach stasis at their noisiest, when they're caught deep in the zone.
Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain (Load Records)Lightning Bolt's 2003 album Wonderful Rainbow just kept getting bigger and bigger, like a 16-ton amplifier falling out of the noon sky. Its bass tone squashed round heads into wrecked ellipses, and the drums chattered away as if on a chain drive. The album was the opposite of Excedrin, a tension headache in ten movements. Lightning Bolt have done
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for the past few weeks ive been into a lot of mellow music that chills me out (i.e. thelonious monk, portishead, animal collective, massive attack), but i woke up this morning wanting to hear some heavier repititious rocking: stoner rock, if you like. so i put on lightning bolt's hypermagic mountain, and let me say that this album is sick. the ever-intensifying guitar riffs and frantic drumming...
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at http://www.noiseforobama.org Those of us in the underground/DIY arts need to consider what is important for the future of the US just as much as any other citizen. A climate of tolerance, a strong economy, and a world that inspires us to do greater things are all things that make it easier to be a noise artist. A vote for Barack Obama will encourage these things. This website collects state...
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for the past few weeks ive been into a lot of mellow music that chills me out (i.e. thelonious monk, portishead, animal collective, massive attack), but i woke up this morning wanting to hear some heavier repititious rocking: stoner rock, if you like. so i put on lightning bolt's hypermagic mountain, and let me say that this album is sick. the ever-intensifying guitar riffs and frantic drumming...
More >
Lightning Bolt - Hypermagic Mountain (Load Records)Lightning Bolt's 2003 album Wonderful Rainbow just kept getting bigger and bigger, like a 16-ton amplifier falling out of the noon sky. Its bass tone squashed round heads into wrecked ellipses, and the drums chattered away as if on a chain drive. The album was the opposite of Excedrin, a tension headache in ten movements. Lightning Bolt have done
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Lightning Bolt out Boredoms the fucking Boredoms. Seriously, the Boredoms may have pioneered the art of noisy riff played over and over rapidly, but Lightning Bolt takes it even farther. Hypermagic Mountain is a headache on speed, like banging your head against a wall at 200 bpm, and I mean this in the most positive of ways. “Riffwraith,” the name of a track on the album, may be the perfect
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 "Hypermagic Mountain")
