Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska
Mountain Rituals

THE REVIEW

'Mountain Rituals' is the first studio LP (currently released only as a cassette, as well as in digital format, of course) from one of the new offerings of Sky Lantern Records. I'm referring to this trio from Newcastle Upon Tyne in England called Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska, formed by Chris Watson, Aaron Bertram, and Alex Johnston in May 2014.

Recorded at Little Building Rehearsal Studio in the city of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the album follows a series of EP releases starting from 2015, which, along with live performances, have helped to circulate the name Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska in the UK's psychedelic music circuit.

Ready to take the big leap beyond borders with this album, literally defined as a 'monumental tome', the trio offers, in two long tracks each lasting twenty minutes, what we can consider their entire repertoire. Devotees of that musical school ranging from Ash Ra Tempel to the Acid Mothers Temple of the now-legendary Kawabata Makoto, Snakes Don't Belong in Alaska thus show both their faces. The first track, 'Mountain Void', is indeed a long session of acid psychedelic music supported by the powerful bass sound, where the central role is played by the electric guitar, which spreads shards of sound that lodge in the brain until they destroy the mind. The second part ( 'Mountain Mirror') is instead a kind of dronic kraut-rock construction, meditative yet obsessive at the same time, with more solemn tones suggesting ancient rituals conducted in remote locations, by followers of religions dating back to the origins of human history.

If I were you, if devoted to certain neo-psychedelic sounds and dronic suggestions, I wouldn't think twice and would immediately let myself be swept away by the power and atmospheres of this album and this band, which from its debut has hit the mark and soon aims to cross Albion's borders and invade continental Europe.