Sing Along to Songs You Don't Know

Mum’ creative samples

Mum is the experimental electronica seven-piece from Island. Its music is characterized by a special glitch beat, soft vocals and the adoption of the most varied traditional and non-traditional instruments and objects used for the purpose of creating inimitable effects. The band was formed in 1998 and has already released 5 albums, several singles, remixes and soundtracks and almost fully changed its line-up. Today only two founding members are left in the band, Gunnar Orn Tynes and Orvar Toreyjarson Smarason. Before forming Mum the guys played in a rock band until one day Gunnar found the audio cassette Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works on school ground which literarily changed his entire life. Together with his friend Orvar Smarason and twin sisters Kristin and Gyda Valtysdottir they geathered around the computer, took some old strange music instruments and began experimenting. That was how the band Mum appeared and it never stops to surprise its fans with its creative samples and unbelieveably magic tunes for over a decade now. This year the collective releases its fifth studio creation Sing Along ToSongs You Don’t Know.

Сollection of absolutely magic compositions

Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know is a collection of graceful etherial and absolutely magic compositions with sometimes intriguingly strange titles. The record opens with suchlike track If I Were A Fish, although, according to the band members themselves, it is merely a love song. The composition’s first sounds are those of nothing but dulcimer later joined by piano, guitar, shakers and light vocals. The follow-up, Sing Along, is stylistically closer to pop music though some electronic elements and experimental vocal parts can be heard at the end of it. The central theme on Prophecies & Reversed Memories is performed by a bass guitar on which the layers of drums, vocals and of course electronic samples are loaded. Mum has really done its best on A River Don't Stop To Breathe so as to create an image of the river that lives forever, with the help of marimba, strings and an old drum-machine Chamberlin Rhythmate. Another love track Show Me opens with a marvelous piano solo, alternating with airy lyrical vocals and a parrot’s tweeter. Two compositions Hullaballaballu and Kay-Ray-Ku-Ku-Ko-Kex are united by the common topic of nonsense in the language – they are both exciting and lively songs best revealing Mum’s being so fond of experimenting and inventing. Blow Your Nose is a magic tune featuring strings and a vybraphone, creating the effect of presence in a fairy tale. The album closes with Ladies Of The New Century, a charming lullaby, made up by relaxing piano chords and etherial vocals.

The unique immediateness

The band has really done its best working on the new album. Mum’s music can leave nobody indifferent, even those who pose themselves far away from music. The band successfully combines the relaxing magic with soft, but secretly inspiring energy. What makes these guys so unique is the trimmed melodiousness of their music together with harmonious combination of analogue and digital techologies. With each of its compositions Mum demonstrates how inventive, creative and open it is in its approach to making music. Although some of the critics agree that it is high time that Mum grows up, the immediateness and childish open-mindedness makes it so different from many an electronic collective. Mum manages to preserve its individual style even despite of the tough conditions dictated by the contemporary cynical world, and one should not underestimate it in that. Artfully manoeuvring betwen the dreamy pop rhythm, electronic beat and sweet melancholy, Mum creates a mysterious reality filled with dreams and miracles, which is always at hand – it only takes the music to be turned on.