(10.09.05) I will begin this review with a paraphrase from the included one-sheet:
“This album was recorded very shortly after me and Gunni met Kristin and
Gyda and became a four people band… It was originally released on an
Icelandic label called Thule but early on a number of disputes came up
which ended up dragging on for many years… We have the rights for the
record back now and are really happy to be re-releasing it on our
friends label where it seems to fit in like home.“
If not for that disclaimer, one might take this re-release as new
compositions from Múm (which I accidentally did when I tossed the CD in
my car’s player without reading a word.) If this indeed was to be a new
release for Múm, it would most certainly be a step back. The sound
quality is not exactly on par with what a Múm fan might be used to, and
the major-scale over clicky-click beats thing has been beaten to death
by a zillion aspiring laptop rockers in countless indie and net-releases
for the last five years.
But… this release was recorded in 1999, which if memory serves, was around
the time that the clicky movement was first being born (that would place
Múm at the vanguard, where they belong.) This disc also provides a
candid look into the Múm toolbox; the clean, patient sounds, ethereal
keyboards, live instrumentation and pulsing rhythms are all there in
infancy, offering up a missing link in the evolutionary story of Múm.
Highlights are “Asleep on a train” which features a hypnotic drum loop,
melodica, and bells weaving in and out of a sinewave bass and water-drop
melody; “The Ballad of a Broken Birdie Records” which highlights a
wispy female vocal over lethargically crunchy clicks and synths; and
“Sunday Night Just Keeps on Rolling” which forces the user to wait in
anxiety for six of eight minutes before delivering an ejaculatory,
up-tempo, bit-degraded drum rush.
All in all, this disc will find its way into my car collection and
will most definitely get spins alongside other Mum discs like Summer
make good and Finally we are no one. It will also serve as a stopgap
until the next collection of new Múm tunes is born.
Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today is OK is out now on Morr Music.
