STS
Be the Mountain
Self-released
This was unexpected. After debuting in 2025 with Swallowed by a Whale, a stellar EP of seductively growling electro and techno constructions, STS has taken a rather unexpected left turn on his follow-up, populating Be the Mountain with (mostly) drumless excursions into gauzy ambient bliss.
According to the Detroit-based producer, this shift was in part a response to what he describes as “a period of sustained physical and mental strain,” during which his music became a “quiet counterweight to the intensity.” That certainly tracks with the new record’s weightless sensibilities; the lush textures of “Held in Space” conjure visions of being wrapped in a cozy blanket and floating through the cosmos, while the EP’s rippling title track recalls the kickless, trance-adjacent elegance of Barker’s Utility album.
With its cloudy grandeur, the slow-brewing “What Remains When It Passes” is part Harold Budd, part Airdrawndagger-era Sasha, while “Brute Silence” plays out like a kind of haunted lullaby, its scratchy, reverb-laden melodies leaving ghostly contrails in their wake. STS ventures into slightly murkier waters on “Between Here and Far Way,” dabbling in the same sort of dubby, static-kissed ambient techno one might expect to find on a Purelink record.
Be the Mountain is a patently gorgeous effort, but those seeking something more emotionally immediate will likely gravitate to “Places,” which not only closes out the EP, but is also the only song which prominently features the sound of the human voice. Granted, STS has tweaked and processed those sounds into a procession of subtly glitchy and somewhat otherworldly falsettos—let the Imogen Heap and Burial comparisons commence!—but they nonetheless communicate a tangible sense of melancholy and vulnerability. The resulting tune is most definitely an outlier, but it’s also a welcome reminder that this exquisite record was made by someone who was going through a heavy time, and, in his own words, saw the music he was making as an “escape from the chaos.”