salon.com May 2002

Review by Ewald Christians.



Finally we are no one (FatCat)

Múm, formed in 1997, are two guys, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Póreyjarson Smárason, and twin sisters Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir. "Finally We Are No One" is their second album, the follow-up to "Yesterday Was Dramatic -- Today Is Okay" released in 2000. On this release Múm return with the same intricate, laptop-based glitch beat programming featured on their first record, but they shift their focus to a warmer sound, sprinkled with soft vocals and richly textured acoustic elements such as guitars, bass, accordion and cello.

They hail from Iceland, the home of pop chanteuse Björk and indie band Sígur Ros. Like both of those acts, Múm create beautiful soundscapes and subtle, fragile arrangements. But instead of the vocal acrobatics of Björk or the wind-swept, static noise epics of Sígur Ros, Múm make electronic music with a strong affinity for liquid sounds. Throughout the album, water seems to be trickling and seeping in through the cracks of drum patterns, washing over bleeps and bass lines.

Múm have performed concerts in unusual places, including shows in Iceland's public pools. (The band used U.S. military underwater speakers while listeners floated on water with their ears submerged; you had to be in the water to hear anything at all.) "Faraway Swimmingpool" feels like an attempt to simulate that experience, and many other tracks on "Finally" have an equally bubbly, yet muffled quality.

Múm's most recent project involves accompanying Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film "Battleship Potemkin," a show that will be shipped stateside this summer.



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