"In 1998, the Darla label released a 12-inch EP compilation called Drum & Bliss, putting a name to a style that had been woven into the indie-pop fabric-one part whispery near-ambient bedroom pop, one part breakbeats. The fierce "Amen" break that served as the foundation for jungle had been around long enough that it almost seemed comforting, so why not fuse rhythms of its ilk with music that was as soft and cuddly as a teddy bear?"
"If circumstances had been different, perhaps múm would have risen no further than Junior Varsity KM and Technicolor, two artists from that Darla comp. But around the turn of the millennium, music fans of a certain stripe, desperate for the next album by Radiohead, were losing their minds over Sigur Rós; the hunger for another experimentally minded band from Iceland was strong."
The 1998 Darla compilation Drum & Bliss named a style combining whispery near-ambient bedroom pop with breakbeats. The fierce "Amen" break provided a familiar rhythmic foundation for fusing jungle-derived beats with soft, childlike instrumentation. The Icelandic quartet múm—Gunnar Örn Tynes, Örvar Smárason, and twin sisters Gyða and Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir—recorded early experiments later collected on the 2012 compilation Early Birds. Growing interest in Icelandic experimental music around 2000 helped draw attention to múm's 1999 debut, Yesterday Was Dramatic - Today Is OK, notable for intricate music-box IDM and strings by Hildur Guðnadóttir. Subsequent records became more song-based as the sisters left and the band evolved into a collective.
Read at Pitchfork
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