The first sounds on Mum's "Summer Make Good" are the dull roar of a slow, creaking wind, followed by a low wailing sound. It's a mysterious and alluring beginning for an album that seems to promise more of the same.
The first proper song -- "Weeping Rock, Rock," -- takes these random noises and introduces actual instrumentation. Out of this mist rises first a slowly droning organ, then clanking drums, and finally an accordion. Finally, Singer Krist?n Anna Valt??sd??ttir's soft voice enters a song that takes nearly seven minutes to build to its glistening climax.
With an opening gambit like that, it's hard not to approach this record with high expectations. However, these expectations are ones that, unfortunately, this record cannot deliver. With "Summer Make Good" -- the Icelandic-based band's third album -- Mum has dispensed with the cascading electronic tones of previous works and unwisely attempted to move into more atmospheric territory.
If only Mum could balance "Weeping Rock, Rock's" balance of song-craft and intrigue for an entire album. As it turns out, the songs slowly melt into a haze of organ tones and long, repetitious drum passages.
With "Summer," the group seems to be moving in the opposite direction of what made them originally so promising. Their 2001 debut "Yesterday is Dramatic, Today is Okay," used occasional organic flourishes to highlight blissful electronic compositions. The 15-minutes that compromised "Awake/Asleep on the Train" is still the best song to arise from the recent crop of down-tempo electronic music.
Mum's second album "Finally We Are No One" deemphasized the band's electronic nature by grounding songs to a real drum or percussion instrument. Tracks like "Green Grass of Tunnel" and "The Land Between Solar Systems" were brilliant pop songs and showed a real knack for suspense -- one that the group reintroduces on "Summer Make Good."
But "Finally We Are No One" also stands as the source of many of the dull passages that compromise the vast majority of Mum's current album. When listening to the record I couldn't help but ask myself -- where are the songs? Each track seems to introduce some ambient background noise (obtained from the remote lighthouse where this record was recorded) and then adds to glacial drums and digital clicks for several minutes. Then they end. That's it: no attempt at melody or development in these songs, they simply ooze in and out of the stereo.
The music won't even work effectively as an atmospheric condition along the lines of ambient composers of Tim Hecker or Loscil. Every time the music locks itself into a cathartic groove, the listener is confronted with the voice. Valt??sd??ttir's voice can be a useful tool -- adding a pretty layer to icy compositions. But it also can be really annoying. Her limited range, and high thin vocals make the end of "The Ghosts You Draw on My Back" practically unbearable to listen to.
Previous Mum album's used the group's large palette of instruments like glockenspiels, trumpets and cellos to great effect. Here the group seems so intent with invoking some kind of primal ambience they are afraid to actually play them. The dangling harpsichords on "Sing me Out the Window" are probably meant to invoke mystery, but the random scales and jarring notes sound as if they were recorded by stray toddlers.
There are just enough interesting moments on the disc to prove the group has not lost touch completely with their original talents. Several instrumental interludes, including the opener and "Stir" invoke genuine suspense. But what Mum need to do is channel this feeling into actual compositions to make an effective record.
The title of one these songs asks, "Will the summer make good for all our sins?" With the inability shown on this disc, I'd say probably not...
