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Astrobotnia
Part 01
Múm
Finally We Are No One
Putloe House Collection
Let The Ugly Disappear
Astrobotnia
Part 01
Part 01 opens with fireworks erupting over blankets of silence and then warm drone. Aryhthmic drums begin to puncture the fuzz like groups of artificial exploding rockets. It ends with a return to where things began. 'Lightworks' has all the minimal sensuality that is so beguiling in the music of Múm. That same warm drone throbs underneath, 'Hallo', altogether more ordered and melodic, with its sequenced drums and slightly pinched bleeps. Next, the satanic-friendly strains of 'Everyone'. The vocal is lethargic, as are the mono-syllabic lyrics, almost as though the listener is privvy to a reverse-playing of one of those slowed-down heavy metal rants. The track does carry a certain charm, though. 'Acidophilus' is a return to the Eno-esque texture of 'Hallo', with just gently patted drums to separate this from, say, one of Eno's Apollo soundscapes. 'Untitled' furthers the hazey tone, opening with a noirish stirring of strings, and continuing with ghostly groans rubbing against the chirruping electronics of warm wooden beats. 'The Wing Thing' spits and skewers like something from the Warp roster. It is pacey with the subtlest hint of a melody underpinning everything and finishes with what sounds like a futuristic train disembarking from the station. This continues into the tweet-over-low-bass-belch territory of 'Miss June'. 'Sweden' is a clean, fizzing piece of music, that, halfway though, beautifully embraces the synth-heavy pulses of the early-nineties that used to permeate ten-a-penny house hits. Strangely, they seem to fit within this Astrobotnia fantasy rather well and it all sounds quite organic. Maybe 'Applause' is a slightly ironic track. The most 'human' sound on the album somehow contrives to sound like the most false. The canned handclaps seem to be in response to the preceding thirty minutes of electronic texture, with three choruses of applause responding to the last plinks, bleeps, groans and computerised voices that reprise the eight preceding tracks. If this album beguiles, it is because it has fused the boundaries of dance and electronica, and is an intimate and mystical painting of some alternative aural universe.
