A Band Called Ma: “Mountaintop”

The days of flipping through the dictionary to help decide on a new band name are long gone, and not just due to digitization. No, even amidst exponential artist multiplicity, a good chunk of modern music makers have a penchant for near banal minimalism when it comes to titling their projects, even if it makes them nigh-unfindable at first. But of course, for every Q there’s a …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and just some great sweet spots in between. Like earlier this year, Austinites Dominic Sena and Austin Barker wheeled out their Big Bend-inspired two-piece MA with “CALL”. But they quickly discovered that even with modifiers like “band” “music” and “Austin”, that MA was virtually unsearchable online. Since then they’ve wisely rebranded themselves as A Band Called Ma, and yes, it’s like A Tribe Called Quest, you say the whole thing. Don’t worry though, Barker and Sena still nurture future-nature sounds in the ilk of Alex G, Radiohead, and Brian Eno in their Daytime Moon home studio. And there’s plenty of proof in the pair’s third recording of the year “Mountaintop”, which just dropped this morning; sultry acoustic riffs softly expand against spacious percussion, ethereal electric guitar, and multi-tracked vocals for a real triumph that peaks with poignant spoken word and soaring saxophone before a splendidly steady descent.

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