Deerhunter’ Cryptograms was surely one of 2007′ most impressive releases. Deerhunter, led by Bradford Cox, trod through psychedelic pop as though it were a field ready for harvest, and they were stoned colligates.
Atlas Sound, Cox’ solo project outside of Deerhunter, was recorded in the wake of the release of Cryptograms and it embellishes that records narcotic-infused suggestions with an intrinsically deeper layer of melody and complexity of vision; taking vaguely lucid vocals and setting them amongst a myriad of layers erring towards the outer limits. Quite occasionally it is absolutely magical, cases in point the majestic Winter Vacation and Bite Marks, where transcendental drones rise and dip and surround with recurring frequency. Quarantined is also gorgeous and glacial, its sweet pop-inclinations and glittery chimes beset by (some eventual) heavy-hit beats and Cox’ dreamy vocals. Quarantined is in fact pop music for the minute; strange but utterly entrancing, melodic, crooked and trance-like. Genius.
The vague tropicalia of Cold As Ice is where The Sea & Cake should have found themselves this many years on; wonderfully repetitive, textural, and strangely non-linear, with rhythms undercutting it all and overwhelming it all in syncopation. But elementally it’s the encompassing textural nature of Let The Blind Lead.. which I find the albums most important vista: the evolving and interchanging drones underpinning melodies and shimmering nuances, the vast nature of these tracks suggests a man reflecting on inhabiting a World removed from the manicness of contemporary thought or Western living, OR, a man existing on the edge of a swirling chaos. Only Bradford Cox knows which he’ referring to.
Steve Phillips
