Browse by Artist: MUM

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Gleoileg Jol
Label:	A NUMBER OF SMALL THINGS (GERMANY)
Format:	7"
Price:	$7.00
Catalog #:	ANOST 033EP

Iceland's Múm send seasonal greetings with this 7", containing two interpretations of conventional Icelandic Christmas songs: "Nú er Gunna á nýju skónum" ("Now Gunna is wearing her new shoes") and "Babbi segir" ("Daddy Says"), both of which are traditionally sung around the tree at Christmas dances. They are arranged for guitar, autoharp, kazoos and voices and are sung in (charming) terrible-beautiful style. Slightly festive stuff yet melancholic, floating somewhere between pure naiveté and lucid kitsch. With the addition of artwork by lead singer Örvar Ţóreyjarson Smárason and a coupon for a free download (with a a digital bonus track), this is the best Icelandic Christmas 7" put out all year.

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy
Label:	FAT CAT (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	FAT 046CD

2007 release. "The album was recorded in a number of different places, one of them being the music school in the small fishingtown of Ísafjörđur in the west fjords of Iceland, making use of the schools various instruments. The drums were mostly recorded in an old school house on the island of Nötö west of Finland. The songs on this multifarious album were conceived over a long period in many a different fashion, one song even dating back to the period of Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK."

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Please Smile My Noise Bleed
Label:	MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$11.00
Catalog #:	MORR 020CD

Features two new songs by Múm and six remixes by Styrofoam, ISAN, Phonem, Christian Kleine, Arovane and B. Fleischmann. Not to be confused with the Múm Remixed album on Thule. 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 quartet's celebrated debut album Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today Is OK, knows that Múm's "eye shutting-bicycle beats, sounds and melodies" would feel suitably at home with Morr. This record came to be raw for Múm, like a raw carrot. In a way, their machines wrote the music 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 feedbacking 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. Christian Kleine's old mountain radio is playing a steady diet of old school electro pop. Eight-bit snare drums and a deep massaging sub-bass manage to put a headnoddingly near-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 hip-hop action with 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. ISAN contribute their dark and brooding "Cantena" mix -- all deep analog bass and persistently ringing bells with the original melody making only the vaguest of appearances.

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK
Label:	MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	MORR 058CD

Classic debut Múm album, previously issued by Tugboat & Thule -- available again. Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK was mostly recorded in a tiny, sweaty room in the summer of 1999 with carpenters banging nails around the band, but sometimes they put on headphones so they couldn't hear them. It was originally released on an Icelandic label called Thule, but early on a number of disputes came up, which ended up dragging on for many years. Part of the attraction of the album is its mixture of analog instruments such as harmonica, accordion and glockenspiel with digital clicks and cuts. But what makes it so beautiful is that at no point does this combination feel constructed or forced. While listening to Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today is OK, you don't care how it was made, you're just enjoying that it exists.

Artist:	MUM
Title:	Prophecies and Reversed Memories
Label:	MORR MUSIC (GERMANY)
Format:	10"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	MORR 093EP

In conjunction with múm's fifth album, Morr Music releases Prophecies and Reversed Memories: a 10" that contains one album track and two songs exclusive to this release. "Prophecies..." features a naive and overly-sweet chorus that gets more and more euphoric with its repetition, while "Amen Flutes" is an eccentric and strange pop song that builds up a glorious mess of sounds. To close, "Krippling" is a careful, fragile and heart-warming ballad that shows the band's adult side. Limited remaining stock.

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Artist:	MUM
Title:	They Made Frogs Smoke 'til They Exploded
Label:	FAT CAT (UK)
Format:	7"
Price:	$5.50
Catalog #:	FAT 731EP