Mum - The Peel Session

  by Andrew Hare

published: 27 / 11 / 2006

Label: Fat Cat Records
Format: CD

intro

Stunning release of atmospheric, deranged Icelandic quartet múm's Peel Session from 2002

Patient seems to exhibit the existence of two or more distinct personalities or ego states, each with its own pattern of creating music. It seems that patient in question, the Icelandic quartet múm, suffers from dissociative identity disorder. I was able to discern this through their demonstrable psychiatric condition whereby the group has shown pervasive instability in mood, interpersonal relations, electronica amnesia, reversion to childlike harmonic structures, and overall flux in self-image, identity, and behavior. The two personas seem to co-exist in a precarious elegance within the live EP, 'The Peel Session'. You see it all started in 2000 with the release of 'Yesterday was Dramatic...Today is Ok', when the band were proclaimed kings and queens of the yet emerging genre IDM. The work was hailed as an atmospheric masterpiece, a soothing experiment full of enough synths, glitches, and bleeps to lull the most pretentious hipster into a state of relaxed euphoria. The trace of female vocal harmonies and any indication of live band dynamics were minimal and subdued on the debut. As the band pushed forward every subsequent release, however, seemed to slowly move away from the experimental ambient territory of 'Yesterday…', and towards child-like melodies, live vocals, and traditional acoustic instruments. 'The Peel Session', culled from a 2002 live set at Maida Vale, is like watching múm have an internal emotional battle, albeit a beautiful one. The recording shows a recording group slowly turning into a live band by radically changing its dynamics and seems to occupy a musical space somewhere between 'Yesterday…' and the group's follow up. 'Finally We Are No One'. At times the band sounds like it could be done by one person on a laptop such as with 'Scratched Bicycle/Smell Memory', but tracks like 'Now There Is That Fear Again' remind the listener that this is a full group effort with its live vocals and expansive pop soundscapes. In the end 'The Peel Session' is a remarkable little work that redefines the notion of what it means to be a ‘live band,’ while also managing to capture the sound of a group in constant flux as though struggling with its past as it forges a new future. A fascinating document emerges of a band on the verge of a delicate, perhaps tragic musical breakdown.

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