Castevet's Mounds Of Ash was one of 2010's best metal releases. The NYC trio's blend of muscular black metal, hardcore punk, progressive post-rock, compositional implosions, and a "fuck you" attitude made for some of the year's most compelling music on record and onstage. Mounds, out initially via Profound Lore, is getting a second life courtesy of a vinyl edition out next month via Forcefield. In honor of that moment, I asked vocalist/guitarist/etc Andrew Hock to assemble a Mounds Of Ash mix. He responded with an ambitious collection of dark metal (of various sorts), complex avant-garde jazz, booming classical, and Talk Talk. His thoughts and selections:
All this music was in heavy rotation during the writing of Mounds Of Ash. While constructing this playlist, the links between all these songs became clear to me. The pursuit of understated grandiosity runs through all this material in a really deep and profound way for me. Enjoy.
01 Sorhin - "Dar Allt Svunnet Ar, Dar Ingenting Ar Allt"
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02 Anton Webern - "Symphonie, Op. 21"
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03 Kvist - "Stupet"
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04 György Ligeti - "Chamber Concerto For 13 Instruments (First Movement)"
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05 Mutiilation - "To The Memory Of The Dark Countess"
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06 Ulver - "Capitel II: Soelen gaaer bag Aase ned"
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07 Cecil Taylor - "Steps"
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08 Voivod - "Technocratic Manipulators"
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09 Lycia - "The Remnants And The Ruins"
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10 Adramelech - "The Book Of The Worm"
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11 Derek Bailey - "Lot '74"
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12 Master's Hammer - "kol prostira se temny les..."
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13 Olivier Messiaen - "Quartet For The End Of Time(VI) Dance of Fury, For Seven Trumpets)"
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14 Summoning - "Like Some Snow-White Marble Eyes"
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15 Root - "Corabeu (Part II)"
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16 Talk Talk - "New Grass"
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Mounds Of Ash is out via Profound Lore. The vinyl edition is out 8/30 via Forcefield. This new version will be available in a limited run of 100 white copies and a more plentiful number of black. They've redone the packaging, too. The new art, designed by Mark McCoy, features lyrics, etc. View it here.
