Pitchfork

So that's what "Loveless on mushrooms" might sound like. Bradford Cox, the Atlanta-based Deerhunter frontman and solo artist behind Atlas Sound, just keeps emptying out his vaults on his bands' blog. After recently sharing various demos and outtakes from Deerhunter's Cryptograms and Fluorescent Grey EP, Cox has now posted a "sort of tape collage" from Cryptograms' abortive first recording sessions. The cassette was originally intended for release on Brooklyn's Fuck It Tapes, but for whatever reason, Cox never turned it in. He has since publicly apologized for some rather nasty, "not factual" remarks about the failed sessions' producer, New York singer/songwriter/producer Samara Lubelski-- so it probably shouldn't be a surprise that what we can hear here indicates those sessions turned out better than Cox suggested, too.

Deerhunter's Cryptograms mixtape emphasizes the group's ambient side, pushing the ethereal loops of instrumentals like "Intro", "White Ink", "Red Ink", and "Tape Hiss Orchid" to such lengths that they take on a structure and eerie calm that might've taken more patience to hear when sandwiched between rock songs on the album. Like Brian Eno and David Byrne on 1986's recently reissued My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Cox also blends in the exhortations of Southern preachers. The mixtape concludes with a snippet of garage-psych nugget "Orphan Boy" by Half-Pint and the Fifths. Cox has also lately posted another installment in his series of mp3 mixes, and a sunny, tambourine- and feedback-splashed Atlas Sound tune for his "healing music" project, "Dog Named Apollo".

MP3s:> Deerhunter: Cryptograms mixtape
[Cryptograms is out now on Kranky]