Outside of all those free downloads and EPs, Atlas Sound is following Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel with the second proper full-length Logos. According to a note from Cox written on July 4th, the 11-track collection’s more in the spirit of Microcastle than his past Atlas Sound work.
My last album was a bedroom laptop type thing. Very introverted. Logos is an album that was recorded all over the world. It’s not about me. There are collaborations with other musicians. The lyrics are not autobiographical. The view is a lot more panoramic and less close-up. I became bored with introspection. This was also the case Deerhunter’s Microcastle LP, which was written during the same period.
He continues, including a mention of past leaks, Logos‘ compositional process, and background info on how Noah Lennox and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier ended up contributing.
I started recording December of 2007. I recorded the first version of the album, which was not intended for release. Due to some unfortunate mistakes on my part, this “sketch” of the album was leaked. Many of the songs where simply “placeholders,” songs I created quickly to help design the “arc” of the album.
I did not react well to the leak, in retrospect. It became the kind of internet-fueled drama that I was quickly learning to despise. I had always desired to speak through music, not blog posts and interviews, etc. I considered abandoning the project.
I toured for a period in Europe with Animal Collective, whose band dynamic was very inspirational to be around. On the bus, we often played improvised iPod games. We would take turns formulating a theme or unifying concept and then play three songs. The goal would be for everyone to try and figure out the theme. During one of these games, someone played “What Am I Going to Do” by the Dovers. I was amazed at the hook – a weird organ thing with drums and electric bass. I mentioned to Noah that someone should really sample that riff. He agreed and he taught me a little about sampling and matching up beats. This ended up as the collaborative effort “Walkabout.”
Each song on the album has a similar story. That might be my favorite thing about the album. It’s a collection of songs. There is no “filler.” There are little scrapbook details everywhere. Sasha Vine [of Sian Alice Group] provided a double-tracked improvised violin part to “Attic Lights” which was recorded backstage at a Deerhunter/Sian Alice Group show in Brighton. It might be my favorite moment of the album. I played it for some younger friends of mine. They cringed. They wanted more songs like “Walkabout.” Something with a big beat. I told them when they get older they will appreciate things like harmonicas and violins more.
Laetitia from Stereolab, who I idolized as a teenager and would later befriend on tour, contributed words and vocals to “Quick Canal.” The song was originally about 15 minutes long. I had zero ideas for vocals and asked if she could give it a shot. Andy Ramsay [Drummer for Stereolab] took a dub of the original and recorded Laetitia’s vocals at his press play studio in London. It was quite a treat to hear the finished product, now at an economical 9 minutes.
Almost everything you hear on the album is a first take. This makes it almost like a “live album” where a band sets up in a studio and just rolls tape. There are songs on here I don’t even remember recording.
Now that you have the background, here’s the tracklist:
01 “The Light That Failed”
02 “An Orchid”
03 “Walkabout” (w/ Noah Lennox)
04 “Criminals”
05 “Attic Lights”
06 “Shelia”
07 “Quick Canal” (w/ Laetitia Sadier)
08 “My Halo”
09 “Kid Klimax”
10 “Washington School”
11 “Logos”
Logos is out 10/20 via Kranky. A full U.S. tour will be announced soon.
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Somebody please feed that dude a cheeseburger.
Yeah, a cheeseburger will cure his disease. You are right. Look it up.
The amount of good material this guy manages to pump out is unreal. Amazing.
Seriously. The guy is starting to out Spencer Krug Spencer Krug.
he is severely dedicated to his art. i lived next to him for a couple years. when he was at home he was always writing and playing music, to an almost annoying frequency. Im slightly bitter that it is all really, really good.
So, Bradford has been digging M83′s S=Y album?
One can tell from reading about this that it’s definitely going to be better than his first.
uh, what?
Let the Blind…. was pretty great
Yeah, it was pretty great, thought we all knew that already. But Logos will be even better. Was not trying to diminish the first record at all.
So this is from a friend of mine from Finland who shared this with me not too long ago…
“Anyways, last Tuesday I saw Deerhunter play live. And it was a bit surreal gig experience (I’ve never seen them before, although love them dearly, Microcastle especially is an excellent album).
First of all, they had just flew from Lisbon to Helsinki that morning, after merely half an hour of sleep the night before. The airline had lost all their luggage, including pedals etc (they did have their instruments though). Bradford didn’t even have proper shoes (they were in the suitcase as well), only worn old flip-flops. ‘I’m sorry, I feel so naked here on the stage now’ he apologized several times, referring to the lack of pedals and thus his ‘sounds’.
The audience really didn’t mind because they were playing brilliantly. The whole thing turned a bit more weird when they stopped to play and Bradford gave this long monologue of what had happened on their way here etc, and then called the airline pilot (yes the one who had just piloted their plane to Helsinki) on stage. He was a punkrock-fan called Greg or Craig or something. Bradford explained how he was really proud to have such an important person (‘it’s like having a preacher, or your parents, in the crowd’) in the audience (he seemed to mean this) and was really sorry the gig was such a mess (which it wasn’t really). Craig (?)looked like as if he’d been called on the stage to be told off because the airline lost the stuff etc., but that wasn’t the case.
The audience listened to all of this quite baffled. After that, the band returned playing and started to take wishes from the audience – the rest of the gig they played everything what the crowd wanted. Bad thing was, we were all so ”what the fuck is going on here?’ that we were a bit apathetic.
To make matters worse, Moses’ drum set kept on falling apart during the songs, literally. So they pulled one guy from the audience to sit next to the drums and hold them together, so they could play. This guy didn’t seem to mind and was taking pics with his phone.
During the final song (Strange Lights) they gave bass and both guitars to various members of audience (the guy who had been holding up the drums ended now playing the bass). Bradford and Moses were playing the drums, Lockett and Josh were just hanging around and taking pictures. The resulting psychedelic wall-of-noise was something rather out of My Bloody Valentine’s catalogue.
The crowd was so mindfucked we just left without even understaning to demand an encore (I don’t know what they could’ve played even more, though, they played pretty much everything we demanded). So if you have a chance to see them, go! :)”
awesome story dude
They did a free show at my college a few months back with Crystal Castles. I went for them, and didn’t actually stay for Crystal Castles, but because they were only opening and were barely mentioned in most of the promotion for the show, most people there either hadn’t heard of them or didn’t care. Then they played “Nothing Ever Happened” and within about four minutes, the crowd went completely nuts. The doors opened at one point, the crowd parted, and people started booing, and I only realized later that it was because the cops had apparently been called and had busted in.
After Deerhunter left the stage, one of the MCs entered frantically and warned us that if people didn’t calm down, the cops were going to shut them down. Bradford ran up on stage and told us to “break all the fucking windows”. Everyone cheered and he added “Just kidding, guys! Vote McCain!” and scampered off. When I left I saw that there were indeed about a dozen grim looking cops stationed outside the doors.
I really love this band.
I’m ready to see him play this Friday in Atlanta with Dirty Projectors. I’m sure he will be playing mostly new stuff. I saw Atlas Sound open for Stereolab and Bradford is a whole different animal with Atlas Sound compared to Deerhunter. I’m so excited.