In the Future is an intriguing release by Black Mountain. The band's background is one of both the stoner and indie genres, and yet In the Future is an authentic attempt at an early 1970s retro prog sound. As we learned from their followup Wilderness Heart, Black Mountain's "heart" remained true to their background, and In the Future ended up being something of an anomaly (or at least I believe that to be the case, having not heard IV, but the reviews indicate similar). To my ears, because of this juxtaposition of styles, Black Mountain ends up sounding like an "out of time" band from 1978 trying to recreate 1970, rather than a modern band doing such. In the Future is like discovering the most interesting looking album at the local Montgomery Ward, set inside some ancient mall that felt more like a DMZ than a shopping plaza (America in 1978 was a much different looking place than today). Black Mountain has captured the aura of what Arista Records originally intended to do, before giving into crass commercialism. It's the type of album you can hear over and over, because of the many different textures, colors, and styles. In some ways, I can also hear a band like Australia's Tarot here, with the focus on a hard rock style, and teetering that stoner genre, but not quite crossing over. There's also quite a bit of mellotron here as well for fans of the instrument. I really like this album, though it does appear to be one-off greatness in their canon.
CD: 2008 Jagjaguwar (USA)
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