Crack

14/20

Bradford James Cox is a man of rare musical talent, something of a visionary and a force to be reckoned with in indie circles. He has honed his sound through years of boundary pushing, genre defying alternative rock reverie under various guises through his seminal band Deerhunter and his solo project Atlas Sound.

Parallax is technically his seventh album using the latter moniker (including 2010’s four album series Bedroom Databank). That makes it seven in a little more than four years. With such an ambitious output, one might expect this latest effort to be a tad contrived, but Cox is a specimen, a superhuman creativity machine who owns that much-coveted combination of being prolific and consistent. Parallax brings Atlas Sound’s... um... sound into 2011 with a bang-on-trend remodeling of Cox’s shoegazey dreamscapes. Tripped-out psychedelia drench the fantastically titled Modern Aquatic Nightsongs and the record even takes a turn towards more traditional guitar rock on opener The Shakes.

The album isn’t all retro nods though, and the influence shining through acts as a primer to the space-rock and quixotic sounds that seep through every pore of the record, like the percussive clicks and effects drenched vocal on Praying Man, a perfect example that old and new can be more than just friends.

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Words: Billy Black