Sigur Ros "( )" (R)

If you liked Agaetis Byrjun, you're going to like this one too, as it's very much the same type of moody, spooky, and lush downtempo orchestral record. It's very hypnotising, and I found myself mentally wandering off while listening to it while driving home from work tonite (which I guess is not too bright of me...).

I'm going to see them Friday in the city, and I'm taking someone who has never heard them. I've never had such a hard time describing a band's sound before, until I found myself coming up short finding ways to describe their sound. In this record I hear bits of Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins, all kinds of 4AD-ness for that matter, Mazzy Star slow groove, Bill Nelson, early Pink Floyd progressive timing, Laurie Anderson old-school sequencing, Massive Attack percussion, and the general quirkiness that we've come to expect from all music from Iceland except for Quarashi.

The CD's packaging is gorgeous, with no verbage whatsoever besides the band name and web address, not even on the spines.

Pretentious? Yes.

Beautiful sounding? Yes.

For everybody? No.

 

The NYC show last night was absolutely brilliant.

I've never seen anything like them before. Totally amazing, hypnotic, and beautiful.

 

I had heard they don't play encores, so I wasn't really disappointed. In fact, I thought the length of the show was just right, considering how intense some of the material was.