Atlas Sound – Logos

It’s difficult to take Bradley Cox’s word for it when he says that Logos, Atlas Sound’s long-delayed follow-up to Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, is “not about him.” He churns out music like a human jukebox – probably the sort of guy who starts fiddling around with his friends’ guitars without asking. As the lead singer of Deerhunter, he’s become a hot item to anybody in the know, but, as Atlas Sound, he’s spewing constant streams of new material on his blog. Cox says that the side project is a way to try some things that he can’t do with a full band, but one wonders if it’s just a way to keep writing when the rest of Deer Hunter wants to take a night off. Which doesn’t necessarily make Logos about him, but he’s naked on the cover, so…

Not that I’m complaining. Cox started out very good, but all the work is paying off. Logos is wonderful. He cobbles a startling variety of sounds together – noises that don’t look like they fit until you try it out and, low and behold, you’ve got yourself a song. With a lesser musician, these would be cast-off experiments for the diehard and gung-ho. But Cox is the real deal, and these tracks stand on their own two feet.

The opener, “The Light That Failed,” sounds like a soundtrack to opening your eyes for the first time – the samples of swirls and squirts coo like newborn angels. The song morphs effortlessly into the tipply two-step of “An Orchid,” which, in turn, blooms into “Walkabout.” That song hosts the vocal talents of Noah Lennox (he of Animal Collective fame) and, if the buzzy echos are any indication, Lennox was every bit as involved with the creation as he was the recording.

Especially interesting is the balancing act Cox plays with the listener, keeping them at arms’ length with the icy production and his own muffled vocals – only to go for the gut when you’re least expecting it. The dreamy, distant “Criminals” is followed-up by the earthy intimacy of “Attic Lights.” The surefire highlight, the rending “Shelia,” is a wonderful ballad for Cox’s one true love – and that song turns into the album’s nine minute centerpiece, “Quick Canal,” on which Cox is all background and Stereolab’s Laetita Sadier takes the center stage.

It keeps the careful listener a little off-balance, all this shuffling around. And, though Cox has had moments of disarming honesty in both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound, he has a rare quality of mystery about him. Constant exposure notwithstanding, there’s an intangibleness to everything Cox has given us. It lends him an inaccessible air – not exactly a desirable trait in today’s disclosure-happy scene – but it also gives his music an irresistible sense that one more listen will shed new light, and unlock previously undiscovered delights. The deeper you look into Atlas Sound, the bigger it gets. And that’s the surest sign that Logos is not only about Bradley Cox – it is him.

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