Loading ...Atlas Sound – Logos
Forgive me for having difficulty classifying Atlas Sound. This music is atmospheric without being overly indulgent in the synth-y deep sounds that usually characterise the ambient, and often heavy, genre. The tracks on the second album from Atlas Sound, Logos, are light, relaxing and happy without exception, but only a fool’s ears would see or hear this sound as plain pop.
James Bradford Cox describes his solo project away from his main band Deerhunter as ‘bedroom pop’; that seems to fit.
Cox’s awkward noises mixed with the airy atmospheric vibe he manages to impart to each track and the rhythms that build up, undetected at first, throughout this album, create a relaxed rustle of harmonic background hums with a layer of unexpected, propelling, blossoming tunes. His sound is instantly likeable.
Logos opens with the gauzy ‘The Light That Failed’ and later moves into a more buoyant, rhythmic feel with ‘Walkabout’ (a collaboration with Noah Lennox of Panda Bear/Animal Collective) which itself is pretty Animal Collective-esque, albeit less forceful and irritating in its tunefulness. The album winds down again to ‘Halo’, a calm and introspective track which introduces an atmosphere that carries through to the end of the album.
Cox’s prowess for creating perfect but offbeat pop is obvious in the way that the individual tracks, as well as the album as a whole, flow. Logos is quite simply very easy on the ears and a great listen because it’s gentle but just a bit different. Logos is an LP of static-filled pop delivered in a series of lightly echoey lo-fi shuffles.
