Mum Finally We Are No One CD

Fat Cat are proud to announce their release by recent signings (2002) from Iceland, Mum. Highly-anticipated second album from this Icelandic 4-piece. Beautifully meshing some dense but intricate programming with gorgeous vocal and instrumental melodies, richly textured, hypnotic and unashamedly sumptuous.

Mum: Gunnar Orn Tynes, Orvar Poreyjarson Smarason, Kristin Anna Valtysdottir, Gyda Valtysdottir.l
Personnel: Helga _óra Björgvinsdóttir (violin, viola).
Audio Mixer: Valgeir Sigurdsson.
Recording information: A Rafstodvarvegi; Freyjugotu Og Fjolnisveginum Reykjavik; Galtarvita I Sudureyrarhreppi; Hjallabrekku Kopavogi; Hufelandsstrasse Berlin; I Ellidaardalnum; Mjolnerparken Kobenhvn; Studioinu I Alafosskvosinni (I Mosfellssveit) Og Grodur; Sumarbustadnum A Laugarvatni.
Unknown Contributor Role: Samuli Kosminen.
Múm's first album for Fat Cat -- by no coincidence, the label that also broke fellow Icelanders Sigur Rós -- has all the majestic synths, crackly drum machine percussion, sampled silence, and crystalline vocals you'd expect from the country that produced Björk and Sigur Rós, though with less focus on digital sound than the former and less reliance on drama than the latter. Múm is very interested in the music of sound, but Finally We Are No One never sounds like a difficult record; if it's not the instruments sounding naïve or folksy (in good ways), the lisping, childlike vocals are bound to prompt adjectives like adorable and precious. "Green Grass of Tunnel" has the sweet melancholia, coloring-book hip-hop, and slowly shifting chords of poptronica producers like isan or Boards of Canada, and also trades on the wide-eyed fairy-tale qualities of Björk. Apart from the hefty title, "Don't Be Afraid, You Have Just Got Your Eyes Closed" approaches mainstream appeal -- briefly, and at several different times -- with a nice dance beat gradually replaced by a beatbox breakdown, toy xylophone, and a nice trumpet melody. Several individual passages of songs strike an evocative chord, like the string quartet, piano, warm synthesizers, and percussion rumblings of "K/Half Noise" combining to recall the quieter portions of Tortoise's landmark "Djed." ~ John Bush

Rolling Stone (5/23/02, p.82) - 3.5 out of 5 stars - "...Using dreamy electric-toy melodies, Mum find majestic sounds in unlikely places..."
Q (6/02, p.120) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The fuss was entirely justified. as their quirky take on music is utterly unique...What really sets them apart is their curious combination of bright-eyed playfulness and maudlin moods..."
Alternative Press (8/02, p.77) - 9 out of 10 - "...Mums beguiling juxtaposition of ancient and contemporary influences is serene and reassuring...almost magical enough to give credence to the wide-held Icelandic belief in the supernatural."
CMJ (7/22/02, p.14) - "...Beautifully shimmering music..."
Mojo (Publisher) (6/02, p.116) - "...Unavoidably lonely, yet strangely uplifting..."
NME (Magazine) (5/25/02, p.32) - 7 out of 10 - "...Nowhere is quite as odd as Mum's native Iceland, and few childhoods could be as simultaneously idyllic and creepy as those soundtracked by Mum's electronica..."