Atlas Sound - Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel
Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel begins with a young boy telling a ghost story about a spirit named Charlie. Waves of sound wash over the boy as the story continues and the spirit enters the room with the listener like audio fingers reaching over unwary shoulders. The ghost story plays on a cassette tape player, probably a haunted one, and the rustling sounds accompanying the boy’s tale soon become overpowering. Charlie has arrived.
Ambient musician Atlas Sound, the musical solo project of Bradford James Cox, creates an engaging record with this Feb. 2008 release. Cox is a fascinating character. He is a sufferer of Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder that characterizes its patients with disproportionately long limbs, elongated thin fingers, and a naturally tall stature. Cox is also the lead singer of an Atlanta-based “ambient punk” band called Deerhunter, but Atlas Sound was developed out of a desire to do a solo project.
Cox recorded Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel on Ableton Live, a loop-based music sequencer that is often used as an instrument for live performances. The album rarely uses effects that were not built into the software and the lyrics for the record were created as recorded on the first take.
Cox has used the name Atlas Sound since the sixth grade when he started recording on a cassette recorder karaoke machine. The name of the company that made the machine was Atlas Sound, of course. Cox, now in his twenties, has composed a series of feelings with this Blade Runner-esque album.
Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel is not for everyone. Music never is. The phantoms of sound created by Cox often seep into perception and play softly on the walls, but they can also be infuriating and jarring. The repetition of the guitar loop from “Cold as Ice” has the ability to drive itself deep within just as it has the ability to dissuade with its spacious feel. The mystery lies in the ghosts he creates.
Cox has said he wants the album to feel like a dream, creating a rounded effect with the ambient tones of music. The pulsations of tracks like “Ready, Set, Glow” offer little escape from the surreal state, instead subjecting the listener to hammering strobe-like rhythms.
“Recent Bedroom,” which picks itself up from the ground after “A Ghost Story,” starts off harmlessly enough with a rather model guitar stroke. Cox sounds somewhat like a more delicate Billy Corgan as the fuzz of the song begins to get out of hand, but his expressions about his failure to cry signal something more noteworthy than vocal emulation.
Atlas Sound has created a disorienting, winding, hazy piece of music. The walls of sound represent a sort of shoegaze effect (maybe “dream pop,” har har), but his heartbreak and inner torment provide something more through the noise. One critic went so far as to compare the record to Loveless (Alternative Press, March 2008, pg. 140). While I don’t think I would go that far, there are some elements to Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See but Cannot Feel that surely call upon the spectre of Kevin Shields’ masterpiece.
Long after the ambience has faded, I can still see the imprints that the phantoms left. I can still hear the ache and frailty in Cox’s voice. And I can still see the mystery beneath the fog. This is a beautiful piece of music, one of lingering and powerful quality, that should go down as one of the best of the year.
9/10
