There's been a lot of talk about Sigur Ros lately. My official line on the Ros is that they are great live but a bit disappointing on record. Certainly, I bought their first album on the strength of a live show they did supporting Godspeed You Black Emperor! here once. The concert was amazing, coupling their otherworldly music to footage of Iceland's lunar landscape. Deadly buzz. But the record, nyeh, not so good. It all sounded a bit weedy and wibbly, and it has received little airplay on Vicarage FM. meanwhile, Shannyjean shaid:
word of warning: do not do not do not buy the album called something blah blah "angels," a joint effort with a holger hoemloersternstein or something. it's truely awful. i'm sorry. i don't mean to be a putz, i just don't want you making the same mistake i did. it is bad. bad bad bad. blagh.
I beg to differ. I think I bought that disc at one of their concerts (it has no printed information on it and a plain white sleeve), and I rate it much more highly than their first proper album. Is that guest singer the volkish Icelandic singer who guested with them the second time I saw them live? he is great, a man possessed of a doomridden voice suited well to incomprehensible Icelandic folk tunes that sound like they are about freezing to death or having to eat decomposing sharkmeat. Great stuff, I think I'll put it on now when Viva Hate finishes. What I like about that record is the way it meshes modernist avant garde music with traditional tunes. It reminds me a bit of "La Novia" by Acid Mothers Temple. As you know, Acid Mothers Temple are the Japanese space rock sensations who all live in a commune together. "La Novia" is a record they did of Occitanian folk tunes. It's all about the suppression and extermination of the Cathars by the Catholic French in the mediaeval period, and it gamely mixes traditional southern French music with space rock *and* throat singing. I heartily recommend it. I was in Manchester a few weeks ago, meeting the other B&S fans. They seemed very nice, and I even exchanged some pleasant words with The Adversary. Menswear were not mentioned, but we did all have a larf when the club we were in played Lazy Line Painter Jane for the second time, cause a stampede of twee fuckers to the dance floor and the rank terrorisation of the less fey locals. T-b-t bless them. and may T-b-t bless you too. DV P.S. STOP BUSHI'S WAR! +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+