What:
Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel
Who:
Atlas Sound
On:
Kranky Records
When:
Released Feb 19
Related links:
Deerhunter / Atlas Sound blog
Atlas Sound hype at Quiet Noise
Everybody likes to think of Bradford Cox - frontman of last year's best buzz-band, Deerhunter - as a freak, anorexic Perry Farrell-lookalike. "True queer art punk", twenty-something virgin and major mover in America's now-music underground; it's an image Cox encourages and lives to the full - giving sensationalist interviews and posting numerous songs, sometimes EPs, overnight on his super-popular blog.
If this profile has threatened to peg-hole Cox as simply infantile, all's set to change next month when Kranky release his debut as Atlas Sound, Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel.
Enigmatic, overwhelming and joyously melodic, it's a record that mesmerises with the repetitive beat of Cox's filtered subjectivity. His tone is confessional throughout, his voice seductively encouraging a certain trust which is then complicated by sheets of emotionally-shredding sounds. Extremely elusive, with a lot of what is heard so distant that a single effect is hard to grasp, songs like 'River Card' and 'Quarantined' have childishly simple lyrics and arrangements that are extraordinarily delivered.
Guitars, bass and drum-set flicker through soft electronics and nameless percussion, with Cox's ethereal vocal drawing everything out in a dry-ice epiphany.
By Mark Gomes
Release: Album
To Cure: A predictable playlist
Search our guide to Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by interest

Browse our guide to Melbourne by keyword
Melbourne Events Calendar
Select a date to see what's on in Melbourne
Browse our guide to Melbourne by weekly issue