Sugar Candy Mountain
Originally the bedroom recording project of Will Halsey and Ash Reiter, Sugar Candy Mountain has truly taken on a life of its own. Led by Halsey and singer-songwriter Ash Reiter, the group has grown to become a full-fledged live ensemble and a loosely knit collection of friends who help fill-out the recordings with their groovy sounds. Halsey began recording “Mystic Hits’ while staying in Sao Paulo, Brazil and finished the record at home in Oakland, CA. Truly a delight to the senses, the album features far-out artwork by acclaimed artist and long-time friend of the band Jess Willa Wheaton and 13 tracks of psychedelic pop bliss. Anchored by the dual male/female vocals of Halsey and Reiter, the songs weave in and out of tempos and timbres like a lysergic daydream on a summer’s afternoon.
If Brian Wilson had dropped acid on the beach in Brazil and decided to
record an album with Os Mutantes and The Flaming Lips, it would sound like this—all psychedelic pop Wall-of-Sound and beach balladry. From the fuzz guitar of “Soak Up the City”, to the electric sitar and 60’s pop vibes of “Lovely Time”, to mellow beach ballad “Saudade Love”, to the super catchy “Knock Me Down”, “Mystic Hits” is the psychedelic soundtrack for the 21st century, featuring space-age sounds and far-out frequencies from the tripped our tropics.
