Name: Seven Metal Mountains
Brand: John Johanna

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

FAI018

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Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2019-07-19

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

666017337517

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

John Johanna

Genre GB

Folk

Label GB

Faith and Industry

Faith and Industry is a London based independent record label founded by Capitol K. With a focus on promoting unique and innovative music, the label has become known for its diverse roster of talented artists.

Since its inception, Faith and Industry has been dedicated to supporting emerging musicians and providing them with a platform to showcase their creativity. The label's commitment to nurturing talent has led to the discovery of *prominent artists* who have gone on to achieve critical acclaim.

With an emphasis on quality over quantity, Faith and Industry carefully curates its releases, ensuring that each album represents the artistic vision of the artist. By fostering an environment of collaboration and experimentation, the label encourages its musicians to push boundaries and explore new sonic territories.

For fans of Khruangbin and Snapped Ankles. Seven Metal Mountains is the second album from rural Norfolk musician John Johanna, a unique artist whose inspiration is drawn from studies in borderless folkways, mystical scripture, psychedelia and gospel blues. The album takes its title from the Ethiopian Church’s Book of Enoch, where seven metal mountains represent the world-empires that have successively oppressed and controlled humankind.

Built on the bones of recent reel to reel tape sessions in his woodland IMZIM studio, Johanna’s signature drum machine, pure guitar tone and polyphonic synth is then worked up alongside producer Capitol K at Total Refreshment Centre. Additional drums by Betamax (The Comet is Coming) and backing vocals by Karina Zakri (Seafoxes). The album’s cover art is from artist Chris Bianchi.

Children of Zion sets the tone with a loose garage production that rides over Dick Dale surf rock drums. Song of the Three tells a legend about the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The stately electronica instrumental In the Court of King Solomon evokes a magnificent royal court of the ancient world, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Radiophonic Workshop score.

In Standing at the Gates of Love, John Johanna relates a meditation on the ancient, mystical belief that the gates of Paradise are guarded by an angel with a flaming sword. Deep River is the setting of words from the African-American gospel tradition to an original song by John Johanna. Prodigal Son has a rich vein of retro disco in an Arthur Russell style. Album highlight is the euphoric, mantric proto Krautrock epic Parker Tallis Version, which features rendering of Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis’s translations of Archbishop Matthew Parker’s sermons. A suitably epic crescendo, before the album title track Seven Metal Mountains brings the album to a close with a blissed out, droning electronica motif. Musically and thematically classics such as Let England Shake by PJ Harvey are certainly reference points, reflected by a certain parochial sentimentality mixed with abstract mysticism, for the production a vein of Cocteau Twins / Jesus and Mary Chain comes to mind with the clattering drum machines and esoteric textures.

Seven Metal Mountains

Music GB