Early Birds

孤独的冰岛, 梦幻的冰岛, 一个人口不足20万的岛屿国家, 却是个十足孕育音乐精灵的土地.
　　Bjork, sigur ros, worm is green, 还有Múm.
　　冰岛常年积雪, 寒冷异常, 却有着世界上最为丰富的地热资源. 他们的音乐亦是如此, 表面上
　　冰冰冷冷, 骨子里却涌动着让人惬意的暖流.
来自冰岛的乐队Múm，由四个中产阶级家庭的孩子组成，他们和其他同龄人一样有自己的烦恼，一样普通。他们有着平常的名字，就像其他人一样。他们温和平淡的努力驱除束缚着冰岛乐团的某种神话。相对奇特的地方也只是乐队成员中的两个女孩儿是一对双胞胎。唯一值得注意的是Múm做出的都是真诚美妙的音乐！
　　Múm将流行音乐探索至美妙的境地，他们的作品中充满了沁人心脾的旋律、嘎吱嘎吱的易碎节拍和顽皮的哔哔声响。Múm就像是一个BELLE AND SEBASTIAN, ISAN, RAYMOND SCOTT, PLONE and BOARDS OF CANADA的混合体。或许乐队成员不愿承认，但他们的作品确实是机灵聪颖清澈见底。聆听者会感受到飘荡在空气中的那份真挚，这种令人欢欣的东西在时下的音乐中真是难寻啊。
It is the year 1998: What might have been the first decade in the history of pop music that was characterized by an overwhelming sense of fragmentation is drawing to a close. Anything goes: guitars & electro, retro sounds or wicked forays into the digitized future. Pop hasn’t sounded this optimistic and upbeat in a while, and there’s currently no need for Weltschmerz in Indie anymore. Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Þóreyjarson Smárason have been making music together as múm for about a year at this point – though it’s not like anyone really took note of them or cared back in 1998.
The two band mates are basically nomadic drifters: They are constantly moving from one basement studio to the next, traveling through Europe, recording anything and everything that comes to mind. Whenever they feel like getting some fresh air, they go out with their DAT recorders to do some field recordings – only to return to some unfurnished apartment in Reykjavík, Montpellier or Berlin in order to mix and combine all the recorded material. Accordingly, the duo indeed also pushes the level of fragmentation in music. However, múm do not have set ideas or a clear mission. All they do is sample, play around, mix, recombine things, and ultimately marvel at the results. And then, at a theater production, Gunnar and Örvar meet twin sisters Kristín and Gyða. And then there were four.
Early Birds is all about those days: It’s a compilation of 15 tracks, all of them recorded between 1998-2000 and long-lost or extremely rare, taken from demo tapes or limited edition vinyl releases. Accordingly, you’ll find not only a track from the aforementioned theater production, but also the yet-unreleased “Hvernig á að særa vini sína”, a fan favorite ever since, that was included on the soundtrack to the movie The Exploding Girl.
múm had a trademark even back in the earliest days: their compositions were all about melodies. Yet, that’s about the only thing these 15 songs have in common. Especially the first half of the compilation focuses more on the playful, “full of beans”-type of experimental tracks: pastiche and experimentation are key, and it’s anything goes indeed: they go from hyped-up pre-Electronica sound to jazzy Drum & Bass, and they aren’t even afraid to present a double-neck guitar solo à la Hair Metal done kiddie style. However, as said above, all the early experiments nevertheless share a certain signature sound. The second half of the album is comprised of those quieter, rather massive múm tracks, with only a few analog layers, harmonious and blissful, revolving around each other for minutes. These tracks are somehow reminiscent of minimal music, but then again they are simply too charming, too wistful and clearly not made for academics.
Early Birds ends with a contemplative piece that’s 10 minutes long and comprised of field recordings, harmonica, accordion, and lots of room for reverb (you could almost call it Dub). In this case the song title pretty much translates to “No one was listening to the fiddler, because the fiddle-strings were broken (why can’t you be good to your mother?)”. This final track ultimately became the “Ballad Of The Broken String” on múm’s debut album “Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK” (2001), though this early version is indeed quite different. When the debut dropped, múm had found their sound. The rest is history: The band was hailed as a key exponent of “Electronica”, and with every release they sounded more and more unique and complete – only to become what might be Iceland’s most original band today.
Early Birds showcases the formative years and perfectly illustrates this evolution, though at the same time it shows that things could’ve turned out quite differently. Plus, it also proves one other thing: Yesterday was OK, too.
The compilation album comes with nostalgic artwork by Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir who experienced the early days of múm first hand. Both the LP and CD version include a booklet that explains how each of the 15 (mostly instrumental) tracks came about.
如果你喜欢Múm的专辑《Early Birds》里的歌曲可以把下面的歌曲连接发给你的朋友:
1.bak þitt er sem rennibraut - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550777.html
2.póst póstmaður - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550778.html
3.gingúrt - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550779.html
4.glerbrot - previously lost - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550780.html
5.hvernig á að særa vini sína - previously unreleased - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550781.html
6.bak þitt er sem rennibraut - bústadavegur er fáviti megamix eftir músíkvat - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550782.html
7.insert coin - bjarne riis arcade game mjiks eftir múm - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550783.html
8.loksins erum við engin - natturuoperan song - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550784.html
9.náttúrúbúrú - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550785.html
10.0,000orð ♪ - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550786.html
11.lalalala blái hnötturinn - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550787.html
12.múm spilar la la la - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550788.html
13.hufeland - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550789.html
14.volkspark friedrichshain - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550790.html
15.enginn vildi hlusta á fiðlunginn, því strengir hans vóru slitnir - getiði ekki verið góð við mömmu okkar? - Múm
http://www.5nd.com/ting/550791.html