Balún -- While Sleeping

8/10
An Icelandic band called Múm pioneered a unique musical sound, combining electronic bloops and bleeps with traditional instruments, and whimsical, childlike vocals. Some time around 2004, Múm almost completely abandoned this sound for a more folky one, but some kids from Mexico stepped in and picked it right back up. Those kids are in a band called Balún, and their EP, While Sleeping, is one of the best things you've never heard that you can download right now for free. Or maybe you have heard it, in which case you already know how awesome this EP is.
While Sleeping is absolutely gorgeous, the kind of music the word "wonderful" was invented for, as it can be applied in an absolutely literal sense to this release.


The only problem with While Sleeping, and the reason I can't give it a 10, is that it is less than fifteen minutes long. Then again, listening to it twice can easily solve this problem, though there is enough pathos--a clear beginning, middle, and emotional end--to make the fifteen minutes feel complete with just one play...though that is kind of like eating just one potato chip (here is a parenthetical; a semi-colon, as well: I figured I might as well try to get every kind of punctuation possible into this sentence).

2004 Self-Released
1. I Shouldn't Do This 5:27
2. Senecio (Revisited) 2:00
3. While Sleeping 2:42
4. Snol 4:38