Lovely new sounds

Tweet Last year it was obvious to those of us observing Deerhunter through the sometimes uncomfortable transparency of their blog that all was not well. As the mighty album cryptograms was borne up on a swell of critical praise, the band members were stressing out and falling apart at the seams like a shitty anorak from Penneys. This all culminated in their current hiatus, which feels a bit more like everyone is sitting in the corner and having a good think about their behaviour than the definitive end of a great band. I have a feeling they will be back again recording as Deerhunter. In the meantime, Bradford has been very busy with the Atlas Sound project and is about to give birth to the full length 'let the blind lead those who can see but cannot feel.' Now I've been a bit of a bad monkey and listened to the illegal downloads of the whole thing, and after one listen I'd make gurgly throat noises of sexual pleasure if I wasn't surrounded by my college contemporaries. Its an excellent sounding album, spun from lighter, spacier stuff than the dense murk of cryptograms. Bradford has jumped off the end of the flourescent grey ep and into the funny looking mist that was calling out to him. It smells to me like this year's answer to Grizzly Bear's 'yellow house.' Not bad for January. MP3: Atlas Sound-MP3: River Card The track I'm linking to is the one Bradford put up for free. Its one of the clearer sounding tunes. It has a twinkly velvet underground type momentum that eddies along like the river he's singing about. The light beats and sparkles counteract the song's dark heart, the lyrical deathwish "you drown me." I'm gonna be good and go out and buy this on CD.