MOUNT ZERO (GOLDEN BROWN VINYL)

A sweeping, guitar-driven road trip that recalls and
reinvigorates the slowcore and alt rock of the 90s and early
aughts, Mount Zero, the debut LP from Swapmeet, marks the
moment the Australian four-piece come into their own.
Following their dreamy 2024 debut EP Oxalis, Mount Zero
arrives on the heels of the band''''s signing to LA-based label
Winspear, after stirring up buzz throughout Australia, taking
home awards for Best Release and Best Song ("Ceiling Fan")
at the South Australian Music Awards and earning the title of
'''Best Emerging Artist'''' at SXSW Sydney. Mingling airy
sweetness with jagged surrealism, Mount Zero transmutes
so many of the regrets and uncertainties of young adulthood
into a burgeoning, newfound confidence. Though the
members of Swapmeet often begin their songs by writing
individually, the tracks on Mount Zero ended up circling
common themes: first loves, first heartbreaks, first
embarrassments, first disasters. As they've done since their
earliest days as a band, Swapmeet traded instruments
throughout Mount Zero and shared production duties as a
foursome, developing their sound by layering dozens
(sometimes hundreds) of tracks within each song, then
carefully removing elements until the production took a clear
shape. The result is a record where Swapmeet bottle up the
tooth-gritting intensity of feeling yourself change at the
cellular level under reality's unyielding pressures. It's a tribute
to all the lives that can never be lived, all the paths that will
never be followed--and an ode to the one that lies
just ahead, too.