Demob Happy

They Have a Map of the Piano

8/10

Mum specialise in the more organic end of electronica and, like fellow-Icelanders Sigur Ros and Bjork, seem to revel in fairy-tale abstraction and child-like imaginations. Don’t let the Bjork comparison put you off though (if you are not a fan, that is) for the use of faux-naïve vocals is both sparing and unconventional. For example, the brilliant ‘We Have a Map of the Piano’ features a looping lullabye of half-sensical lyrics that gently ebb into a beautiful accordion melody accompanied by piano, soft bass licks and vinyl crackle – it would be a perfect song to go to sleep to if it wasn’t so good. Other highlights include: the vocal-led ‘Green Grass of Tunnel’, which sounds like a more experimental, less-histrionic Bjork; ‘Behind Two Hills….. a Swimmingpool’, a fine piece of up-tempo electronica in the vein of Two Lone Swordsmen; and ‘Now There’s That Fear Again’, which cuts treated, almost Japanese-sounding vocals over sombre rhodes piano chords. The second half of the album is less rhythmic and requires more patience, but is as good as any ambient music I’ve heard in recent years and benefits from its playful instrumentality and the sparing use of glitch. Overall, it’s a lush and refrained album that is less in awe of the technical aspects of electronica than many of its contemporaries, and one that evokes a vivid and atmospheric landscapes.