Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Bradford Cox, who has been recording music as Atlas Sound since he was a young teenager, seems to be exorcising a number of past (and present) demons through his music. Both his band, Deerhunter, and his solo music as Atlas Sound can be explosively abrasive, or soothingly ambient, with a hazy, psychedelic wash filtering it into its final form. Here, on his first full-length release as Atlas Sound (where he traded in a 4-track for a computer and some slick software), Cox takes the more delicate approach. An intense shoegaze effect permeates *Let the Blind ...*, coated the project in a sort of narcoticized emotional veneer. The beautiful ache of “Recent Bedroom” is palpable, with its circling guitars and angelic vocals; the shimmery ambience on “Cold As Ice” raises goose bumps even as it soothes; “Small Horror” moves at a glacial, Sigur Rós pace, an elegiac tribute to longing and loneliness; the drugged-out surf guitar is a perfect expression of Cox’ swooning affection for the subject in “Ativan.” Helplessly eavesdropping as Cox works through the growing pains of adolescence and budding adulthood with admirable determination, we get the feeling that everything’s gonna be all right.
On Deerhunter's Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey EP, Bradford Cox helped expertly bring together elements of krautrock, psych, shoegaze, ambient, post-punk, and indie rock; on his Atlas Sound full-length debut he turns inward from that band's high-volume squall.
Artists from Marcel Proust to Emily Dickinson to Brian Wilson have done some of their best work as shut-ins; add to that list Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, whose lifelong battle with Marfan syndrome led him to take up amateur recording at an early age. Cox turns out music at a ridiculously prolific pace, often posting…
<p>Fourteen stream-of-consciousness songs delve into Bradford Cox's childhood ... woozy and glittering, it has an anaesthetic quality</p>