Metal Mountains provide a much-needed blanket-fort of solitude among the otherwise congested borough of Brooklyn.  Made up of Tower Recordings cornerstones Helen Rush, Pat Gubler, and Samara Lubelski, the three-piece has given us a psychedelic-folk ensemble of minimalism at its best.  These tracks are slow.  I can’t stress that enough.  But there’s a calm confidence in Rush’s slippery voice, fittingly accompanied by phaser-guitars and subtle violin.  The frequency of horns on the street below your bedroom window will likely out-pace the pulsing rhythm of sparsely plucked strings (often the only source of percussion).  There is definitely a case for the “it’s the notes you don’t play” argument here.

After listening for a few minutes I was desperately craving a glass of water.  Maybe a hug, too.  This record invoked the lonely desert drifter in me, eventually establishing equilibrium of acceptance and invitation.  Once I settled into the mood that is so quickly established in the opening track “Structures in the Sun,” I welcomed the stability and warmth of a consistent, peaceful record.   The second song, “Orange/Yellow,” is surprisingly not about a Crayola crayon, but rather a reflection on the setting sun, which, for the record, does not seem cliché to sing about so long as you do it as convincingly.

Helen Rush fans will notice the rearranged version of her song “Silver Sun,” previously released in 2006.  Now a moody hi-fi piece that includes explorative violins and reverberated guitars, the track feels like the produced version of its demo baby-sister.  In fact, the entire album carries itself with just the right amount of production to generate a believable, but not overdone, sense of fantasy.  Recommended for anyone who needs an audio massage.

(Amish Records, PO Box 1841, New York, NY 10013)