Atlas Sound

Atlas Sound – Te Amo (live on KEXP)

/ David James / Leave a comment

I’ve been depressed lately.  Melancholic.  In this state I gravitate toward music that either obliterates with minimalism or force, for the most part.  I can drown myself in a long piece from Oren Ambarchi or Klaus Schulze or even Swans.  I can really get lost in something wordlessly spiritual like Alice Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders.  But occasionally I just crave the kind of song designed to wallow in heartache.  Spiritualized is an obvious go-to (I have two albums in my car at all times now) but Bradford Cox is nearly as adept at tapping these feelings, albeit in a less direct manner.  In other words, this song pops in my thoughts often.

The album version is fantastic, inverting his usual icy claustrophobia, wrapped inside a warm blanket of sad love spiked with hope.  This take opens the song up with fresh air and light, without ever leaving the bed.  Lay down and enjoy.

Atlas Sound – Quarantined

/ David James / 5 Comments

atlas-sound-bradford-cox

I am waiting to be…  changed

Bradford Cox is one of the only musicians working today who I feel, despite fronting a popular band and receiving wide acclaim, is less than fully recognized for his true genius.  My snobbier friends write off Deerhunter as indie/pitchfork ‘core’ while casual fans aren’t often bothered to delve into his often exquisite solo work as Atlas Sound, both on record and (more importantly) in the cornucopia of material he’s released free of charge over the years.

Debut Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, source of Quarantined.

My favorite pieces often combine a sharp nostalgic eye for the detail of pop songcraft with an otherworldly timbre.  On paper they’d make any head nod while in practice they alternately embrace and repel through a veiled fog.  Some display a truly off-kilter sense of place and time, pairing Phil Spector rhythms and shoegaze instrumentaion with lyrics about the inner terror of isolation and the damaged longing for freedom through metamorphosis.  For instance.

He’s covered Unchained Melody (seriously, listen) and recorded drone epics about tripping nuts all weekend with equal devotion and care. Cox most recently dropped a three hour, four volume slab of unreleased treasure on fans just because. Because he was neglecting his freebie-filled blog while touring and releasing multiple items with his main band? We certainly weren’t owed more; he is simply that prodigious and generous an artist.

After the dreamy debut masterpiece Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (from which Quarantined sprang) and slightly more straightforward follow up Logos, and a two year break, Atlas Sound is about to treat us all to another official LP of celestial pop on November 8 with Parallax. Check the artwork below for a bit of weird fun and to listen to advance single Terra Incognita. While you’re there, click on a window in the far right building to hear a bonus ditty I won’t spoil here. You’ll know it when you find it.

Also, another special pre-release “leak” of which I’ve grown fond: Te Amo (right-click and ‘save as’ to keep the mp3).

[while you wait get the Let The Blind… 2LP at Insound, or Amazon – there’s a full bonus EP of equally worthy music included and like other 4ad releases the packaging is gorgeous]