Atlas Sound

Our society's lust for information about celebrities — the more torrid the better —has reached hyper-epic proportions, and we who travel in the increasingly diminishing “indie” world are not immune. Recently, sites like Pitchfork.com read almost like TMZ.

Take the ongoing saga of Deerhunter's Bradford Cox, the auteur of Atlas Sound. His blogs (at www.deerhuntertheband.blogspot.com) have become notorious in the burgeoning genre of indie-rock sensationalism, describing his fellow bandmate's fecal deposits and detailing his complete scorn for the production of last year's Cryptograms. The blogs landed the outspoken Cox in a veritable Eames hotseat — Deerhunter embarked on what seemed like an endless sea of praise and tour dates last year, only to implode amidst the loss of a band member and over-publicized rants, which have caused the band to announce their current status as “on hiatus.”

Somehow, amidst all this nonsense, Cox found time in his obsessive-compulsive world (oh, and please do not overlook the super-fine mix tapes he constantly posts on his blog) to create the album Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel. Under the Atlas Sound moniker, Cox takes an about-face from Deerhunter and creates a universe — from his apartment no less — that fits perfectly well into the nebula of Eno and Bowie, offers a nod to sound giants My Bloody Valentine and mixes in a little pop from Joe Meeks (I'm telling you it's in there!)

The result of this home recording is a truly fine, ambient-spaceland album  — a dreamy headphone record worthy of anyone's collection. Created entirely by Cox, using found sound, vibraphone, dulcimer, guitar, bass, drum programs, mbira (the little thumb piano-gourd-thing), then pieced together on his computer, he somehow melts it all together to create a sort of non-space not unlike the cosmos itself: order within disorder. It's Cox's ability to recognize and interpret the landscape he's left behind that sets him apart from most of the ambitious indie rockers of our era.

As for the future of Deerhunter? Who knows, and for that matter, who cares. We can only hope that the music created by our brothers and sisters continues to navigate and bear witness to the sound.