Please Smile My Noise Bleed

Múm | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 13, 2004)
• Original Release Date: 2004
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Morr Music / M.M.
• ASIN: B00029LNZU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #250,594 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In a way it was only a matter of time before múm would end up on Morr music. Anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to the Icelandic trio knows that múm’s "eye shutting-bicycle beats, sounds and melodies" would feel suitably at home with the Morr. This record came to be raw for múm, like a raw carrot. In a way their machines wrote the musik themselves, while múm were playing around on a mountain, lying down, standing up, running around. When they came back they were surprised by their beauty. This is where things started looping and feeding back and even the old mountain radio swam in with a few random words and murmurs. A very old distant friend joined in singing, but only for a split second. When the songs had recorded themselves on tape, Thomas sent them out to all his nice guys who made new pieces out of them, each one special in its being music: Christian Kleine’s old mountain radio is playing a steady diet of old school electro pop. 8 bit snare drums and a deep massaging subbass manage to put a headnodding, perfect groove into múm’s delicacies. Styrofoam has the original múm melodies spinning out of control while somewhere along the way a vocoder and a steady kickdrum manage to sneak in. Bernhard Fleischmann makes a happy return with some splendid cut-up old school hiphop action and the múm girls humming along gently. Phonem turns múm’s clearcut melodies into shifting layers of grainy sound and deep textures, only to be interrupted by an ever evolving broken beat. Arovane does what he does best. Lush homemade synths and basement beats. two step amx style so to speak. I.S.A.N. contribute their dark and brooding cantena mix - all deep analogue bass and persistently ringing bells with the original melody making only the vaguest of appearances.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternately brooding and percolating album of remixes..., March 24, 2005

By 

zeronothing - See all my reviews

This review is from: Please Smile My Noise Bleed (Audio CD)

I've played this CD nearly non-stop since buying it a week ago. The album is, essentially, two original MUM tracks and six non-MUM remixes of those tracks -- usually a formula for listening-tedium, artistic laziness and wasted money on the part of the buyer. Not so here. The songs sparkle, effervesce and delicately brood, each track satisfyingly unique and distinct. I am still enchanted.

Of the nine tracks, easily four of them mine aural gold and justify the CD's price. That said, there is not a bad track on this CD and any MUM fan will be blissed in the rain and wash of analogue-driven sounds and spangles. This is music with which to drive late at night or lose some part of yourself at home, eyes closed and the body moving: sway into slow rock. Share this CD with a friend -- you will convert them.

I own every MUM album but one -- they are all recommended. Enjoy.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You'll smile all right, December 21, 2006

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Please Smile My Noise Bleed (Audio CD)

Usually it's nothing short of tedious -- sometimes headache-inducing -- to listen to an EP comprised of a few album tracks, and then the remixes of said tracks. Fortunately this is not the case with Mum's "Please Smile My Noise Bleed," a shimmering collection of trippy Icelandic music.

It opens with "On The Old Mountain Radio," a trippy, wintry little song full of music-box melodies, somnolent organ, and soft static. It sounds like a toy piano being played in an attic, through a cranky old radio, and it's nothing short of magical.

There are only two remixes of this one: "Flow Not So Fast Old Mountain Radio" is a sprightlier, more ethereal version that also trips by faster. And the Christian Kleine Mix is full of half-obscured vocals, before shifting into a delicate song full of sharper beats, and a more assertive melody.

Then there's "Please Sing My Spring Reverb," a stronger and earthier song with more static around the edges. It gets a deluxe five remixes: the sparkling synthpoppy "Styromix," the stormy clouds of "I.S.A.N. Catena Mix," the sharp beats and ethereal backdrop of "Phonem Mix," the shimmering and playful "Amx," and the tootling synth and beats of "B. Fleischmann Mix."

Like their fellow Icelandic band Sigur Ros, Mum is brilliant at giving us shimmering, wintry pop music, full of sparkling and ethereal sounds. So with music like that, it's no wonder than throwing beats over the songs can transform them into unrecognizable new melodies.

Usually remixers only throw a few new beats on a preexisting song. But with songs like "Please Sing My Spring Reverb," it changes everything about this melody -- makes it less experimental and more pop, without losing the signature sound. And though there are fewer mixes of "On The Old Mountain Radio," they're even better -- "Flow Not So Fast" is just adorable.

"Please Smile My Noise Bleed" is a sparkling, shimmering little EP, and much better than remixes usually are. Thoroughly enjoyable for fans of Icelandic pop.