Brainwashed.com May 2002

Review by Nate Smith.



Múm "Green Grass of Tunnel" 7" Fat Cat

I forgot to switch my record player to 45 RPM the first time I listened to this seven-inch. I thought, Hey, this is pretty good. It's sort of new territory for Múm. It's very intently slow, and though it's got some electronics in the mix, the violin and keyboards sound very lo-fi and kind of eerie. It's really kind of beautiful. Then the vocals came in and I thought, These vocals are so painfully restrained and bizarre - like a low-pitched whispery falsetto. Is one of the girl twins singing or is it one of the men? I can't tell. They're really expanding their sound. What a damn cool song. I listened to it again, transfixed. Then I remembered that I hadn't switched the speed on the turntable... So I listened to it again at 45 RPM, and I realized that I'd been assessing the song totally at the wrong speed. At a faster speed, the song was more recognizably Múm - the electronic beat was faster, more of a groove, the keyboard sounds were more like I remembered they were on 'Yesterday Was Dramatic...' and some of the drums sounded like real drums. When the female voice started singing, recalling "Ballad of the Broken Birdie Records," it was obvious that this was the correct speed. And I thought, What a damn cool song - and so completely different of a feel when from when I thought it was so slow. Now I'm itching to go home and listen to "Broken Birdie" at about 75% the actual speed to see what I can discover. This 7" is easily the best piece of music I've bought in months.



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