Mountaineers
Messy Century

This time, it really feels like we're not just facing the usual rock show.
Ceri, Tomas, and Alex come from a small lost town in North Wales, and looking at their faces in photographs, their image is so light years away from the artificial one of the young rock stars of the moment that we wouldn't find it so strange that the three have simple origins and that until not long ago, why not, they were real "mountain folks."
Here I am reviewing their debut album, hoping that this work doesn't go unnoticed and that our guys, like true misunderstood talents, aren't forced to return to the Welsh mountains, depriving us of the pleasure of their future artistic productions. Letting the Mountaineers fall into anonymity would be an unforgivable mistake.

"Messy Century" is yet another, joyful confirmation of how the young British bands of the early millennium, having finally shrugged off the heavy burden of tedious Brit-pop influences, find their own unique artistic paths without betraying the distinctly British love for melody. In this case, letting yourself be carried away by the Mountaineers' notes means traveling a long sonic highway that starts from the deep and noble roots of English music and ends its journey in the happiest contaminations between electronic and pop-rock enacted by bands of the caliber of Super Furry Animals and Beta Band. Melodic rhythms of an unmistakable Beatles school, never cliché lyrics, arrangements that, while not relying on mega-productions, are far from playing the role of mere sound fillers, all elements that craft an excellent debut. Going through the 13 tracks, there is a strong impression that a folk-acoustic attitude and a passion for strictly low-budget electronic instrumentation harmoniously share the stage, only to steal it in exciting "Silent Dues," "It’s Solid," and "All My Life," or as it happens in "Apart From This" and "Bom Bom," gems that touch on auteur electro-pop.