141: Fust - Mountain Language

tom johnson

11 Mar 2025 — 2 min read

I meant only to send a message this week, to say that I'm moving house and therefore would need to take a few days away from the screen and the sharing to concentrate on the real world for a little bit.

I don't know if it's tied into that – moving house is such a ball of emotion, everything wound up in tight ends and loose beginnings – but I've been unable to stop playing the new album, and particularly this song, from the North Carolina outfit Fust. Their third in three years, all swaggering and scruffily impeccable, Big Ugly feels immediately like their strongest work, a glorious swirl of barroom barraging and aching, breaking hearts. 'Mountain Language' though? Damn.

You know when you're already feeling – really feeling – a new album, how you're noticing the warmth as it spreads, and then a particular song strikes a particular chord, and elevates the whole thing even more? Mountain Language. Damn.

I was driving, windows down, a car full of old new furniture for another new beginning. Above me the sun shone for the first time in months, carrying new season warmth in its open arms, just when we needed it the most. And in came this song, all swagger, all guts and glory faded by the years. Impossible not to play as loud as possible, impossible to hide from the feelings it stirs as guitars hit, drums crash, and the heavy heart beats on and on and on.

Mountain Language. A one of a kind. Thank you, Fust.

We have our own language
Well I had mine
But yours has all those ways of saying how and why
So we use yours
But I still dream in mine
I still dream in mine

But if we make it up the mountain again
We’ll be back with country friends
And there’ll be language on the mountain again
Oh what country, friends, is this?

Big Ugly is out now, via Dear Life Records. Buy it on Bandcamp

three / six / five is a daily music-sharing project from gold flake paint; read more about the idea here

If you enjoy this content please consider a paid subscription ~ or buy GFP a cup of coffee via ko-fi

E m b r a c e
S i n c e r i t y

the pond - when a song dies (GFP premiere)

There's a certain kind of magic that comes from hearing a song unlike any other you've heard before. 'when a song dies', the first single from the debut album from the pond carries such giddy-eyed enchantment, growing from an unkempt and delicate first minute

140: Satomimagae - Many

If 'Many', the new single from Satomimagae, feels like a snapshot it's because it is. One of fifteen pieces that make up her new and forthcoming album, 'Many', the like the album as a whole, "unfolds as a series of vignettes that document

139: Spring Onion - Would It Make A Difference (ft. Friendship)

We were big champions and supreme lovers of Spring Onion's 2018 collection, I Did My Taxes For Free Online. It seems almost unfathomable that it's been 7 years since that release, but finally, thankfully, held with the same sense of grace and charm, Catherine Dwyer returns

138: Thanya Iyer - Low Tides

We were mesmerised by Thanya Iyer's previous album, Kind, featuring her and it in one of our printed journals upon its release all the way back in the heady summer days of 2020. Soulful, colourful, kaleidoscopic pop music, it was a deeply personal collection of songs and Thanya

Read more

the pond - when a song dies (GFP premiere)

140: Satomimagae - Many

139: Spring Onion - Would It Make A Difference (ft. Friendship)

138: Thanya Iyer - Low Tides