•
Rating: The collision of the meteorite “cosmic rock” by Tangerine Dream on the metropolitan-sound area of Bristol has caused such an impact that it deflected the Earth's rotation axis and provoked a new ice age observable at latitudes that barely touch the Arctic Circle... this parabolic game of historicization can give an imaginative idea of the music that FatCat groups manage to create, and ironically underscores the importance of comparison terms to frame proposals that are "elusive" for various reasons.
Something similar happened towards the end of the '80s, when another Icelandic band, Sykurmolarnyr, later renamed Sugarcubes, released a hybrid and undefinable postmodern punk-pop work (oblique keyboards, female vocals plus “disturbing” male recitative, influences ranging from dream pop to certain electronics) entitled “Life’s Too Good”. Considering the subsequent evolution of these peripheral scenarios “compared to the London-New York axis” (Alberto Campo), one might perhaps retrospectively "read" the work produced by these atypical artists by paraphrasing a political slogan "think globally, act locally": translated into music this means “enclosing” one's local reality within the context of “universal” musical forms and structures, or at least partly derived from Anglo-American models. An aspect that is in its own way significant is the edition of Múm's previous work “Finally We Are No One” in dual language: English and Icelandic.
The soft bitstream, at times flowing like certain techno-trance of Biosphere “viewed in slow motion”, liquid and slowed down to the freeze-frame, invests the elastic off-beat cadence of certain trip-hop “à la Lamb-Portishead” (like “Glory Box” last 30 seconds or “Cowboys” opening), or from the dub-electronic of bands like Audio Active: this is most evident in the percussive parts. Even though it’s deliberately impossible to distinguish between what's played, sampled, or (re)created in the studio, the effect counts: the synesthetic suggestion (“listening” seems to “see” grassy blankets, glaciers, and puddles), the aesthetic minimalism (no big themes: titles like “don’t be afraid, you have just closed your eyes” or “between two hills a mirror of water”…), enveloped by a rarefied atmospheric environment (Brian Eno and various epigones plus a sort of “Pagan Poetry” less majestically lyrical and more subtly graceful), and an impressionist portrait of the light gradations throughout the day on Icelandic landscapes, piercing and coloring the clouds, projecting shadows and glittering on the sea, obtained with Bjork's “boreal hyper ballads” combined with a sweet and soft low-fi melodic palette.
These delicate en plein air portraits of external scenarios covered with the most intimate emotions form an involuntary minimalist and almost autobiographical concept, in the manner of a secret diary: “Summer Make Good” actually sounds sadder and more introspective than previous records (“Abandoned Ship Bells”, “Away”), and the drumming, more decisive and dynamic than before, marks its suffering passages more, as in “Whiping Rock Rock” and “Nightly Cares”.
“The horizon is in the mirror, the horizon is within me” … however, emotionally set in the mood of a delicate, collected, and melancholic anticipation of the next season…
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Nightly Cares (04:58)
Skar the fire son
Pet the smiling one
Woo the sleeping one
R� the crying one
H�-hviss my little one
R�-r� my crying one
Ligg-ligg my tired one
Rura sleeping one
Touch a feal, you blind a must
Soft the skin of the warmest rust
Cause nothing blows in the faraway
I go away, go away
Past the hills, past the day
Touch a feal, you blind a must
Soft the skin of the warmest rust
Cause nothing blows in the faraway
I go away, go away
Past the hills, past the day
09 Oh, How the Boat Drifts (05:11)
oh, how the boat drifts
oh, how the tide shift
I lie my head in
I hear it coming
oh, how the wave breaks on your body
Look, how the lights lit
look how its tone shifts
it's doing my head in
we row, we row, we row towards it
Oh how the wave breaks on your body
11 Will the Summer Make Good for All of Our Sins? (04:02)
Please don't cry for hammer in your teeth
We'll spoil the pretty snow that lies beneath
Who go cry for hammer in her teeth
We'll spoil her pretty face at least she feels real
No-go cry for hammer in your teeth
We'll spoil the pretty snow that never feels real
Breathe, you breathe
believe you me tonight
breath in, breath out
make good, make float
bleed you me
_� n�tt
Please don't cry for hammer in your teeth
We'll spoil the pretty snow that lies beneath
And summer will make good for all of our sins
if we only wish it hard enough
Breathe, you breathe
who go who cry
believe you me
to night/m�m night
Breathe in, breathe out
make good, make float
bleed you me
_� n�tt
Sh� cry, who closes eyes and hopes not to come back
12 Abandoned Ship Bells (05:03)
Come little ship bells
Where are you
I just want to say "how are you"
Come here
Red raindrops
Where are you
Bells, where are you
Come to me
Your bells seem to find you
But where are you
Your bells seem to find you
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By Tzunami
Icelandic musicians seem to act unbounded by any contamination, resulting in a kind of dadaism and experimentation hard to match.
I imagine sitting by the window of my little house in Reykjavik, watching the snow mixed with rain fall outside, enjoying a cinnamon tea.
By MotoSegaJohn
A shadow has fallen over the fantastic world of Múm, now singing melancholic songs by candlelight, surrounded by great darkness.
This 'Summer Make Good' is a much more personal and intimate album, where haunting memories and delicate stories intertwine.
By Rohan
With them I enter a dream of music.
In my opinion, Múm create pure poetry.
