Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 19/10/09
Label: 4AD

Finding inspiration enough to squeeze out even one album a year seems like a taxing proposition for most musicians. Getting two out and finding them both in the upper echelons of those feted end of year polls must therefore be the stuff of fantasy. Such though was the lot of Bradford Cox come December 2008 as his day job, Deerhunter's "Microcastle", vied with his Atlas Sound solo project for a spot in the hypester's Top 10s.

Yet unlike so many solo efforts, "Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel" was patently neither vanity project, nor outlet for undernourished material rejected by his band mates. Cox ratcheted up the queasy intensity of Deerhunter, sprinkled on some smack-house style electronica, bathed it all in blessed-out reverbs and in doing so, created a record pitched oh-so exquisitely between living dream and waking nightmare; as enveloping and intimate as Bon Iver's self made classic of the same year.

A tough one to follow then and at first, "Logos" seems like Cox has merely picked up where he left off. Opener "The Light That Failed" navigates the very same whacked-out territory as "Let The Blind…" - flickering, sub-aquatic percussion and hazy melodies woven around his sensuous, lop-sided vocals. However, by "Walkabout" (a collaboration with Animal Collective's Panda Bear) there's a more distinct sense of progression from the debut; the lolloping groove and wonky atmosphere is still far too disorientating to trouble the pop charts but it's crisper and eminently more hummable nonetheless.

A run of tracks thereafter all play to similar strengths as Cox untangles the wispy strands of reverb that might previously have cloaked the tunes to reveal twinkling gems beneath. "Criminals" and "Shelia" amble along with a dozy simplicity without veering into hammy stonerisms, whilst one of his most affecting signatures is showcased at the conclusion of "Attic Lights", as strings and drums swell in a manner that is simultaneously soothing and unsettling.

"Quick Canal", a collaboration with Laetitia Sadier, follows and its homage to her part in cult krautrockers Stereolab is made explicit in its shuffling motorik drums and pointed, plucked bass line, whilst her vocals are whipped, warped and elongated alongside wave upon wave of fuzz that even over nine minutes, never strays into needless noise assault.

Cox is evidently a songwriter and sound sculptor of incredible skill and though the inclusion of the two collaborations - both a little too in thrall to their guests perhaps - means "Logos" lacks the wholly immersive quality of its predecessor, there is little else to contest; truly, this is pop music at its most weird and wonderful.

    by Jim Brackpool