Atlas Sound is not a ‘side-project’ but rather a fully fleshed musical landscape, chock-full of pop chronicles culled from sci-fi fever dreams and mid-century rock. Citing the “ideas that I can’t make work with a five piece rock band” as the basis of his solo material, Cox’s work as Atlas Sound represents a feral and prolific musical voice.
With its scorched beauty, stream of consciousness, and wonderfully cohesive pop narrative, Atlas Sound is another outlet for Cox’s relentless creativity, distinctly remaining the product of just one man’s vision. The twelve tracks on Parallax display a clearer refining of Cox’s muse, further marking him out as a definitively singular voice.
All songs on on Parallax were written and performed by Cox, except on ‘Mona Lisa’, where Andrew VanWyngarden (MGMT) plays piano, ‘The Shakes’ where Carrie-Anne Murphy plays saxophone, and ‘Praying Man’ where Paul McPherson adds drums. Cox recorded all but two tracks for Parallax in June 2011 at New York’s Rare Book Room, where his band Deerhunter recorded their 2009 album Microcastle.
Parallax is perhaps Cox’s best work to date, juxtaposing his modern and sometimes avant song-writing sensibilities against a backdrop of ambient loneliness and a quiet feeling of desperation.
