What is it about Icelandic bands? Their music is so expansive, so lush, so lovely. I’ve never been to Iceland, but I expect the landscape would match the compositions from the country’s best known artists. Yet even so, I’ve never really been able to get into the whole Icelandic music scene, at least as far as casual listening goes. I use Sigur Rós to cure insomnia, and I’ve never found myself all that interested in Björk. What Múm have going for them, however, is that they are an experimental/electronica band who don’t sound overly experimental or electronica. They create luxurious music that doesn’t make me want to lie down for a nap.

With the 2006 departure of Kristín Vlatýsdóttir, Múm is down to its final two founding members – Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason. Although officially now a duo, Múm recruited a whole host of musicians to assist them on their latest release, Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy. GGSTPI is like a soundtrack to the seasons; I find myself relishing the music now as summer turns to autumn, yet I feel that I will find just as much to appreciate from the album when autumn fades into winter in a month or so (hey, it’s Colorado – spring and autumn are practically non-existent here). What I love most about Múm’s new album is that they employ an “everything but the kitchen sink” philosophy when it comes to the sheer number of instruments and gadgets and vocals that they use. In theory, utilizing every kind of instrument under the sun – not to mention the blips, bleeps and fuzz that are ever-present in the “electronica” genre – could add up to an aural cluster-fuck, but Múm manages to score and orchestrate their songs for perfect auditory satisfaction.

“Blessed Brambles” opens the album in a rather sparse fashion, with the staggered addition of drums, horns, and strings culminating in a toe-tapping corker of a track. Other album highlights include the one-two punch of “Moon Pulls” (a gorgeous piano piece) and “Marmalade Fires” (melodic and heavy on strings and horns), possibly the two most dazzling tracks placed smack dab in the middle of the album. And finally, the last track, “Winter (What We Never Were After All)”, is all kinds of beautiful, with its lumbering (in a good way) music and haunting vocals. To convert someone who’s admittedly not a huge fan of Icelandic music is an impressive feat indeed, a feat masterfully executed by Múm with Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy.
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Links
Múm [official site] [myspace] [buy it]