Bradford Cox: Behind those eyes...

Named after the karaoke machine on which he made his first recordings while still at school back in 1994, Atlas Sound is the solo project of Bradford Cox, better known as the frontman of the mighty Deerhunter.

Cox describes his Atlas Sound output as the ‘ideas that I can’t make work with a five piece rock band’ and Logos definitely has the feel of a stripped back Deerhunter album. Retaining the slightly disturbing psychological lyrical content of Deerhunter, this is a much sparser and dreamy affair – the kind of dream that gnaws at your subconscious without ever revealing its content and leaving you feeling unsettled for days afterwards (fittingly, the album artwork depicts the faceless emaciated figure of Cox himself– enough to give you a disturbed night’s sleep itself)

The undoubted highpoint is Cox’s collaboration with Noah Lennox, Animal Collective’s Panda Bear, on Walkabout, a dizzying piece of pop in which wouldn’t have been out of place in Brain Wilson’s head during the recording of Pet Sounds. The rest of the album proceeds at a much slower pace as it goes about its business of worming its way into your brain.

It’s an unsettling but brilliant album. It’s also a debilitating album – it is impossible to listen to as background music, you simply have to stop what you are doing, lie back and listen. Really Listen.

Logos by Atlas Sound is available now on 4AD Records.

Visit the Atlas Sound Myspace here.