Black Mountain + Wilderness Heart

The best music reflects a wide-screen view of the world back at us, helping distill the universal into something far more personal. Since forming in Austin in 2004, The Black Angels have become standard-bearers for modern psych-rock that does exactly that, which is one of many reasons why the group’s new album, Wilderness of Mirrors, feels so aptly named.

FIFTY YEARS SINCE their inception, Led Zeppelin’s surviving members relive the highs and lows of reinventing rock. Their extraordinary imperial ’70s, the terrible loss of John Bonham, the O2 triumph and much more in all-new interviews. Meanwhile, inspired by the band’s graceful acoustic interludes, our covermount CD – entitled Black Water Sides – draws together atmospheric folk and blues guitar studies from the ’70s till now, featuring Bert Jansch, Ryley Walker, Roy Harper, Jack Rose, Steve Gunn, Michael Chapman and more.

Back in 2014, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus performed a stage work as part of BAM’s Next Wave Festival, and they’ve recorded the piece in a studio for their debut album Black Mountain Songs. The project was co-curated by the National’s Bryce Dessner and Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, and the first track that’s being shared from it is its title track, which was composed by Dessner. The rest of the album features contributions from Parry, Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, and Tim Hecker.