One Track Mind

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On October 20th, Icelandic dream pop outfit Blindfold will release Faking Dreams in North America. As with the work of compatriots Sigur Rós and múm, the emphasis in Blindfold’s music is placed on texture and atmosphere. However, the band does not pursue the sometimes overly grandiose arcs and artifice of Sigur Rós’ albums or get stuck in the quagmire that sometimes arises from múm’s electronic tinkering. Consider them Iceland-lite: more within traditional songwriting structures and therefore more easily digestible than some of their neighbors, but still exhibiting mastery over a certain glassy, austere artistry.

“Don’t Think It’s A Sin” commences with thirty seconds of pure celestial drift. An overlay of found sounds is draped over keyboards and the faint strains of a heavily reverbed guitar. Then, like a lens being jerked into focus, crisp guitars spell out the song’s principal melody, joined by singer Biggi’s Yorke-ish warble. It is a soothing lead-in to a track that never flirts with any sort of dissonance; rather, the m.o. throughout is the placid and pristine. Lyrically, “Don’t Think It’s A Sin” underscores the musical melancholy with lines like “I’ve seen so much there is not much left to see/I’ve lost my roots I don’t know where I’d like to be,” which are fitting, if a little facile. One of Blindfold’s greatest skills is the manner in which they make all of the elements of this song coalesce together so nicely. At just under three minutes in length, “Don’t Think It’s A Sin” is a brief mission statement for what Blindfold is all about–that heavenly Slowdive mistiness, those rewardingly glacial tempos, and a lithe melodiousness.