[/SARCASTIC}
― Rizz (Rizz), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:13 (nineteen years ago) link
new album out this year for all you fans of good music
― Rizz (Rizz), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 26 February 2005 14:19 (nineteen years ago) link
I can actually imagine him saying all of the stuff on this thread with a broad un-malicious smile, though!
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 26 February 2005 15:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link
when did roger turn into Geir?
― kyle (akmonday), Saturday, 26 February 2005 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― polyphonic (polyphonic), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:12 (nineteen years ago) link
to the first two, yes, they are not songs nor were they ever meant to be, you couldnt play them on an acoustic guitar, yr right. Jerusalem however is a very great song indeed - whether you can play it well on the piano (and i'm sure you could) does not affect that.
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Saturday, 26 February 2005 18:44 (nineteen years ago) link
Song A song, in classical music, is a short and self-contained piece for one or more voices; it can be accompanied or not, and either sacred or secular in nature. In popular music, however, just about any musical composition (vocal or instrumental) is called a song.
― Anyone Who Can Pick Up A Frying Pan Pwns Death (AaronHz), Saturday, 26 February 2005 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm a big fan. Loved them the first time I heard them, just before ágætis byrjun came out, ( ) is one of my 5 favouritest albums ever, Takk took a while to grow on me but I now totally get it.
I saw the screening + acoustic set they did in Ghent of the DVD they've got coming out next week, it's stunningly breathtaking ( trailer here: http://www.heimafilm.com ), the Hvarf/Heim reworkings are superb ( listen here: http://www.myspace.com/sigurros ) - more info about Heima/Hvarf/Heim here: http://sigur-ros.co.uk/band/disco/heima.php
I understand the hate, on paper/in theory I should hate them too, I shouldn't like anything about them, but it just works and I love them.
ok, start hating again, everyone :-(
― StanM, Monday, 29 October 2007 06:58 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't hate them. When anyone asks me to name some of my favourite artists, I always (always!) forget about Sigur Rós, but usually when I'm alone and in a certain pensive mood for which even Radiohead are too upbeat (ha!) and Joy Division are too heavy-dark, I'll rediscover something like "Starálfur" or "Olsen Olsen" or "Njósnavélin" or "Glósóli" etc., and be half-pleasantly, half-unsettlingly transported again into a half-world of ambient orchestral underground caverns in which the very twisted columns are built from crystalline sugar -- granted, haha -- but which also deflect, reflect and echo some kind of ebbing, flowing hesitant/grandiose beauty.
So yeah, at times, I really do like and even love Sigur Rós, recognising the "pretentious noodling" tag as being really very ridiculous indeed. I.e./ they're not noodling at all and who the fuck cares about pretentious?
― Lostandfound, Monday, 29 October 2007 07:27 (sixteen years ago) link
I suppose I should also say I've been a long-time Yes and Cocteau Twins fan (respectively, from Close To The Edge and Garlands onward, really) so much so that so-called whale music has never been alien to me. It's a definite prog streak that, if you're not onboard with it, precludes you from loving the Icelandic chamber music (cosmic inflation-collapse) Sigur Rós specialise in. They're hit and miss in terms of timing and pacing and all that subjective shite, though. F'rinstance right now I'm listening to a song by them called "Flugufrelsarinn" and it's taken waaa-aaa-aay too long to reach the sublime payoff before dissipating waaa-aaa-ay too quickly. Although undoubtedly painfully gorgeous while it lasted.
― Lostandfound, Monday, 29 October 2007 07:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Why the hate people? -- Gregg, Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark LinkBecause it's ambient noodling for fuck's sake. Use your ears. -- Julio desouza, Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link
Because it's ambient noodling for fuck's sake. Use your ears. -- Julio desouza, Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link
One of my favorite immediate answers to an ILM thread, ever ^^^
As for the band -- wouldn't say I'm a fan, don't own anything they've done, don't love em or hate em. Sigur Ros is just one of those indie institutions (so to speak) that is perpetually overrated by the kids who haven't found artists who have done/are doing what Sigur Ros is doing, but infinitely better.
― stephen, Monday, 29 October 2007 08:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah, this is a critical and undervoiced position: Agaetis Byrjun versus "Blue Skied and Clear." I'm really not one for the whole "someone did that ten years ago so it's not good now" arguments, but I suspect that on some level this is why Sigur Ros strike me as good but inessential. -- [ban me], Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link
[ban me] OTM, as usual, waaaaaay upthread.
(Going back to that "is there any good music writing left?" thread: Is [ban me] currently writing for anyone? Last saw a Pfork review by him at least a year ago, can't recall much else. Love his writing though, and generally agree with his tastes.)
― stephen, Monday, 29 October 2007 08:16 (sixteen years ago) link
(...why was N*tsuh changed to [ban me]??)
― stephen, Monday, 29 October 2007 08:20 (sixteen years ago) link
lets cyberfuck
― Curt1s Stephens, Monday, 29 October 2007 08:49 (sixteen years ago) link
tl;dr
― stephen, Monday, 29 October 2007 09:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Sigur Ros may be the only act on the ILM hate list that does not write traditional verse-chorus-based songs.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 29 October 2007 10:55 (sixteen years ago) link
their albums can be kind of dull but they were amazing live a few years back, i was shocked. i think they work much better in a live setting, surprisingly.
― akm, Monday, 29 October 2007 13:05 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't know how I feel about them, but I will say that they've never really sounded at all like anything anyone on ILM has compared them to. Their layers of vocals that distort as they grow louder really don't sound anything like the Cocteau Twins or any shoe-gazing band. Like it or hate it, it's definitely its own thing.
― filthy dylan, Monday, 29 October 2007 13:18 (sixteen years ago) link
Agaetis Byrjun was pretty good, I thought, but ( ) was better. I also thought they were pretty amazing live when I saw them maybe 4 years ago. Heard bits and pieces of Takk but it never really stuck.
I think the hate towards them often just amounts to kind of silly, knee-jerk reactions - "fuckin new age innit?!?" "fuckin ambient prog noodling" bla bla, come on guys. There is plenty of great stuff that could be saddled with the new age or prog labels, and shouting those labels was/is never a good substitute for decent criticism. That said I suppose the hate is just backlash towards the hyperbolic praise given to them from the indie press, and now I guess from the NPR crowd.
But decent enough ambient/post-rock band, even if there are a few songs that sound a little syrupy.
― Mark Clemente, Monday, 29 October 2007 13:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Pulled from the Stylus archives today, in the Bluffer's Guide to Stylus retrospective:
Haiku Marathon 2005 (Stylus Staff) Sigur Ros Just one step away From being Enya, you daft Secret hippy scum!
― stephen, Monday, 29 October 2007 15:42 (sixteen years ago) link
M83 are similar in some ways (large swelling orchestral cosmic ambience). I don't listen to NPR so maybe I've missed the backlash urge. (I'm not American.)
But, regardless, they sometimes hit heights of beauty that cause me to lose control of my entire skin. Which, for the most part, means they are a lot better than the ILM massive has traditionally given them credit for -- there was one poster who always, always posted on Sigur Rós threads and completely took the fucking piss out of them to the extent that any casual observer would think they were utterly dismissed here, which was not altogether fair.
― Lostandfound, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 08:30 (sixteen years ago) link
(i.e. Search "Sigur Rós" and you'll see one name crop up consistently... in a negative way, obv.)
― Lostandfound, Tuesday, 30 October 2007 08:32 (sixteen years ago) link
my boss listening to these guys on high volume this morning. i don't liek!
― carne asada, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 15:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Caught their BBC Electric Proms performance the other night; seem to remember enjoying the record on first few listens, but live they seemed to expose the song for what it really was; i.e. no real backbone, in other words, what [ban me] mentioned at the start of the thread.
― tissp, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
it sounds like new age crap. is that waht they were going for?
― carne asada, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 15:58 (sixteen years ago) link
Ok then, but don't let their music put you off from viewing Heima, the views of Iceland are breathtaking (and it may add something to the music as well).
― StanM, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 16:41 (sixteen years ago) link
http://gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=36563
― StanM, Wednesday, 31 October 2007 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh come on. I'm a big fan, but this is WAY over the top, anonymous (why?) writer:
"To make all this a bit more concise: Sigur Rós are arguably the best music band in the world today."
http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2007/1026/1193293628660.html
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 12:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Well sure, they might be the best music band, but that's only one of like how many kinds of bands?
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 1 November 2007 14:20 (sixteen years ago) link
There's a trailer I keep seeing at the moment for a BBC4 documentary about photography, which uses a track I'm sure must be by Sigur Ros because it's got those eeeeeeoooooooooooooeeeeeeeee vocals. But it's loud, and quite fast, and I like it. Can anyone ID it?
― JimD, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Rubber? Don't think they're the most elastic. (xpost)
Is it online somewhere, Jim? Can't get 4 over here :-(
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:31 (sixteen years ago) link
sigur ros now seem to exist solely for the purposes of providing music for bbc documentaries
― tissp, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:41 (sixteen years ago) link
so? even if it were true.
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:49 (sixteen years ago) link
Can't find it online I'm afraid. The show is called "The Genius of Photography".
― JimD, Thursday, 1 November 2007 15:55 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajm-m2jPgc4
Hmm. I would be very surprised if it wasn't them, but I don't recognise the track. And I thought I had everything :-/
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 16:04 (sixteen years ago) link
Duh. It's the final bit of Svo Hljótt, from "Takk..." (2005)
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 16:13 (sixteen years ago) link
Hmm. Remix perhaps? Or something from here?
http://www.hvarf-heim.com/
oh, xpost. ace! Thanks. :)
― JimD, Thursday, 1 November 2007 16:14 (sixteen years ago) link
so nothing. just making an observation, wasn't a comment on their music.
― tissp, Thursday, 1 November 2007 18:16 (sixteen years ago) link
phew. :-)
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 18:27 (sixteen years ago) link
Post-release blues? (taking a break, may quit or not, don't know yet)
http://www.vanityfair.de/articles/kultur/sigur-rA-s/2007/10/31/04288/ (in German)
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 20:14 (sixteen years ago) link
No link to this more than embarrassing NPR interview yet? It confirmed all the prejudices I ever had about them and their music. If it was a joke it wasn't very funny. They seem to be even more serious/sad than their music.
― alex in mainhattan, Thursday, 1 November 2007 20:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I don't see how remaining obtuse and quiet in a boring interview in a language that isn't your native tongue confirms more about their music than it does about your "prejudices." I think it's hilarious.
They're able to create a unique aesthetic with conventional instrumentation, and they usually have great melodies. It's just easy to take shots at them because they're not screaming like idiots over badly played punk guitars and sixteenth note hi-hat rhythms.
― plastic tipped cigar, Thursday, 1 November 2007 21:28 (sixteen years ago) link
boy you sure just zinged all of ILM
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 1 November 2007 21:29 (sixteen years ago) link
ban everyone except plastic tipped cigar.
― StanM, Thursday, 1 November 2007 21:30 (sixteen years ago) link