The debut full-length from Atlas Sound (the solo project of Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox) is a trippy excursion into mid-‘90s shoegaze-isms and dense electronic spaciness, but the results are surprisingly focused and arguably more accessible than his other band. While reference points like My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3 and Loop all can be applied here, this is by no means a throwback.

Following a split 12" last year, here's the solo debut album by Deerhunter's Bradford Cox. Its fairly fractured presence, gently chopped arrangements, and dreamy, lithe atmosphere break free from the stylistic mishmash of Cox's other musical endeavor with confident, brushed-off ease. Synths hang in the air, their melodies colliding with guitar and drone effects, Cox's voice lingering somewhere above the surface like an apparition. Musically he's going after a narcotic/bucolic mindstate, a sonic hunk of sponge cake adrift in a sea of Pepto-Bismol. Uncertainty counteracts itself with safety, under Cox's reassuring wing, to create a memorable album, resting somewhere between Spiritualized and earlier moments by NYC's own Excepter. Highly recommended! [DM] (February 20, 2008)