múm

múm: Green Grass of Tunnel.

A recommendation from current listening: múm (pronounced "miooyyuujm" according to the official website mum.is). This is an Icelandic experimental group whose genre I can only categorise as their MySpace page does: other.

Their work is sort of ambient, but more focused: a mix of folky acoustic played on quite odd instrumental line-ups, with breathy English vocals (reminiscent of the gentler Björk register) and radio-static electronica. It slides effortlessly between wistfully upbeat, chill-out, naive; and at times outright creepy, like water dripping and echoing in icy caverns. And all this with highly surreal lyrics. "Haunting" is a cliche, but nevertheless it is.  As Kristam Moffett at Tolling for the Mute describes them - Múm – A Little Treat from Iceland - "At one minute you can be listening to an orchestral wave of sound, and the next feel like you’re inside a giant grandfather clock with an old record playing".

On initial acquaintance, I've especially enjoyed Green Grass of Tunnel (embedded above), I Can't Feel My Hand Any More, It's Alright, Sleep Still, Iluminated, Ladies of the New Century, Sing Along, and The Land Between Solar Systems; but there are many more tracks on YouTube.

- Ray