Hello, as american blacks once again showed their inability to vote for their best interest, by supporting that creep Joe Biden because the Democratic party elite tells them to. So South Carolina votes en masse for mister slick Biden and nothing will change. Meanwhile it looks that corona will stay in the news for months to come, even if the number of deaths is limited certainly considering the speed with which this human race is breeding, from less then 100,000 12,000 years ago to more then 7 billion these days, despite the wars and plagues, no let up is insight. Unfortunately neither is a usable other planet, let alone the technology to get there, meanwhile the humans are destroying the planet they live on. The next 100 years we will see the elite living in floating cities on the sea and in space, but the majority will suffer in mega cities doing nothing much but breed some more, because some socalled god told them to (b.t.w. that creep hates humans). Global warming will see coastlines disappear, glaciers melt and with it the source of fresh water for billions. Earth will become a miserable place for those lacking plenty of funds, that old punk credo "No Future" will finally materialize...
Today's artists excel over pretty much all other (heavy) rock music, while many have looked across space for inspiration and atmosphere, our boys instead went into the earth. and who knows what impossible number of variables had to come together just so in order to create that magic (yes) that they have, regardless of explanation. that these musicians have gone on to tour and sell-out shows in europe, the americas, and the pacific (something relatively few musicians do) speaks quite a bit considering their unique sound. or vice-versa, because they don't really sound like anyone else, right? They're as much slowcore as they are post-rock, and they certainly have their orchestral, operatic, and minimalistic moments as well, in short ' Victory Rose ' evokes (strong) emotions. .......N-Joy
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Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name is Icelandic wordplay: while the individual words Sigur and Rós mean, respectively, Victory and Rose, "Victory Rose" wouldn't be grammatically correct; the name is actually borrowed from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed, and then split into two words. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals were very cute and would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von meaning "hope" and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði This name is also Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work
International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning"). The band attracted a huge critical acclaim throughout the world in the second half of 2000, particularly in america, after they made the move to offer it as a free download on Napster, who impressed by it, really brought them into the picture. Tens of thousands downloads later and the musiclabels were in a franctic hunt to sign them, they ended up with MCA who let them retain the most artistic freedom. The band toured north america for the first time in april and may 2001, and the vast majority of the dates sold out straight away. perhaps due to the hype in the american media, the shows were attended by many big name celebrities, somewhat to the band's bemusement.The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band was playing support to established acts such as Radiohead. Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a summer 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. Sigur Rós spent the first three months of 2001 off the road, setting up their own studio and making their third album. Meanwhile, Ágætis Byrjun found a label in the U.S. and worldwide press became increasingly positive and varied; both Entertainment Weekly and The Wire ran features on the band. The group began touring again in April, playing more shows in Europe, a handful in the States, and several more in Japan throughout the remainder of the year. By the end of the year, Ágætis Byrjun had won the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music; it was also declared Iceland's Best Album of the Century.
In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled Rímur with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September. Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason. In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album ( ) was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. All of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in Vonlenska, also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.
In 2002, the band also wrote an original score for the Bodyscript dance production by Wayne McGregor Random Dance in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Arts Council England. Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead in October 2003 to compose music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós's three tracks were released on the March 2004 EP Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.
Their fourth album, Takk... (["Thanks...") employs the distinctive sound of their second album in a more rock oriented structure with greater use of the guitar, and was released in September 2005. "Hoppípolla" "Hopping into puddles"), the second official single from Takk..., was released in November alongside a new studio remake of "Hafsól" ("Ocean Sun"), a song that was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von. "Hoppípolla" was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural history series Planet Earth in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final, ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, advertisements for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on television advertisements for RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage in Ireland, and on an advertisement for Oxfam. It was also used in the final scene of the movie Penelope, for the trailer of the film Children of Men and for the trailer of the film Slumdog Millionaire.
An extended Sæglópur EP was released in July 2006 in most parts of the world and in August in the United States. Its original release was scheduled in May, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs to appear on the EP ("Refur", "Ó friður", and "Kafari"). In July 2006, Sigur Rós finished a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States (where they played a headline show at the Hollywood Bowl), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Upon return to their homeland, Sigur Rós provided a series of free surprise outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August, playing in various venues such as abandoned bunkers and community coffee shops, all of which were included in the 2007 documentary film Heima. They also performed twice in the United States in February.
In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur was released. Hvarf/Heim was released on 5 November (6 November in the U.S.), a double compilation album containing studio versions of previously unreleased songs — "Salka" [ˈsalka], "Hljómalind" (formerly known as "Rokklagið"), "Í Gær" [i ˈcaɪ̯r] and "Von" on Hvarf, and acoustic studio versions of the songs: "Samskeyti" "Starálfur""Vaka" "Ágætis Byrjun", "Heysátan" and "Von", on Heim. On the same day (20 November in the U.S.) Heima, a live DVD of the previous summer's Iceland tour, was released. Just prior to the release of Hvarf/Heim, on 29 October, a single named "Hljómalind" was released.
The band's fifth regular studio album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust ("with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), recorded with producer Flood in downtown Reykjavík, was released in June 2008 to generally positive reviews. Stylistically different from their earlier releases, it featured fewer strings and more guitar, and had more pop-oriented songs, making it "the group's most accessible effort" while maintaining the "majestic beauty that defines the band's music. The final track "All Alright" is the band's first to be sung in English, though all the other lyrics are in Icelandic.
The band were announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008, and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. Jónsi Birgisson commented, "The piano is exploding, I think," one of the few things spoken in English. The band released the first song from the album titled "Gobbledigook" for free on their website, along with a music video. On 8 June, the whole album was made available for free streaming on their website and Last.fm.
In autumn 2008 Sigur Rós embarked on a world tour supporting their newly released album. The band played as a four-piece without Amiina and the brass band, the first time the band had played as a four-piece in seven years. The tour started on 17 September 2008 in the United States, at the United Palace Theater in New York City, and finished with a concert in Reykjavík at Laugardalshöll on 23 November 2008. The majority of the tour was European with the exception of concerts in the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The group ended its hiatus in April of 2010, playing a set at the Coachella Festival. In October of 2011, they released their first live album, Inni, a document of their 2008 tour. Their understated sixth studio album, Valtari (Steamroller), was issued in May of the following year. Quickly returning, Sigur Rós took their sound in a darker, more aggressive direction with their seventh album, 2013's Kveikur, which found them pushing their sound into unsettling areas. After the album's release the band stayed busy touring. They also branched out, making appearances on both the animated series The Simpsons and HBO's Game of Thrones. In 2017, they collaborated with Somers on two instrumental recordings for a season four episode of Black Mirror. Also that year, to coincide with their own Norður og Niður Festival in Iceland, they released the soundtrack/film production Route One, as well as the Jónsi and Somers EP All Animals. Both albums were also reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, and released to digital platforms in 2018.
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With their fifth full-length album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (translated as With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly), Sigur Rós have taken the poppy, sunshiny leanings of their previous album a step further into the light. The band has always been known for otherworldly soundscapes, and while there is enough of that here to keep the faithful happy, the band also writes straightforward, three-minute pop songs like the incredible catchy, sticky-sweet duo ("Gobbldigook," "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur") that kick the album off like the first rays of the morning sun blazing through your bedroom window. That feeling continues on through the album as both the joyously soaring vocals and the buoyant melodies keep things floating happily on air. The arrangement of sound is quite different from previous albums, too. In the past their sound was characterized by a great wash of instruments merging together into great, gently heaving walls and waves of sound; on this album, for the most part, you can pick out individual instruments whether it's the acoustic guitar that underpins many of the songs (and provides the main backing on the intimate and quite lovely, and quite un-Sigur Rós-like, "Illgresi") or the lone piano that begins "Ára Bátur" (which does expand out into an epic undertaking with over 90 people including the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy's Choir eventually playing on the track). Despite the few tracks that reach for the heavens, for the first time the band sounds grounded and stripped down. Songs like "Festival," with its pounding bassline and charging drums, and the melancholy album closer, "All Alright," which is based on a lonely piano figure (and features lyrics sung in English for the first time in the group's history), are firmly tethered to earth and shorn of excess artifice. In the past it was easy to be impressed with the sound of Sigur Rós, to be carried away by the grandeur of the band and be hit hard by the titanic emotions. On Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust you can really hear the human hearts behind the wall of sound, and while the emotional impact is on a smaller scale, somehow it is even more affecting.
Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (flac 283mb)
01 Gobbledigook 3:05
02 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur 4:05
03 Góðan daginn 5:15
04 Við spilum endalaust 3:33
05 Festival 9:24
06 Með suð í eyrum 4:56
07 Ára bátur 8:57
08 Illgresi 4:13
09 Fljótavík 3:49
10 Straumnes 2:01
11 All Alright 6:21
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When Sigur Rós played the last shows of their 2008 tour, they brought in a filmmaker, Vincent Morisset, to document the shows and also decided to record them as well. (A decision that proved wise as the band’s future was thrown into doubt after the sessions for the next album were started, then shelved, and the band went on hiatus.) Inni is the collated result of two nights of live sets at the Alexandra Palace in London and features songs drawn from the band’s long career and, as with the rest of the tour, is played by just the core quartet with no string section or extra musicians. Sigur Rós hadn’t played such stripped-down (for them) shows for years and the sound just the four of them create is stunning. The guitars crash in waves of color and tone, the keys shimmer like clouds of birds, and the overall dynamics within each song are impressive. Add Jónsi’s otherworldly vocals (which don’t suffer at all from being live) and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a band that had perfected its sound over the years. The interesting thing about Inni is that, not only do the songs capture the hypnotic emotions the band can whip up and then hone in studio, they have an extra drive and passion that is almost revelatory to hear. The only complaint one might have about the set is that at two discs, it can be a long haul to get from beginning to end. That being said, if you’ve stuck with the band this long, you not only don’t fear the long haul, but you relish it. It's a fitting album that sums up and shines a light on all the things that make/made the band so enthralling.
Sigur Ros - Inni (flac 581mb)
01 Svefn-g-englar 10:12
02 Glósóli 6:52
03 Ný batterí 8:38
04 Fljótavík 3:38
05 Við spilum endalaust 3:58
06 Hoppípolla 4:13
07 Með Blóðnasir 2:22
08 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur 4:08
09 E-Bow 9:09
10 Sæglópur 7:40
11 Festival 7:35
12 Hafsól 8:28
13 All Alright 5:41
14 Popplagið 15:23
15 Lúppulagið [bonus track] 5:59
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After taking a long break from recording new material, Sigur Rós' sixth album, Valtari, is a welcome return for the Icelandic soundscape pioneers. Their previous album Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust had been their most intimate and cheerful record to date with songs that could actually be called "songs" and the band stripping their sound down to the point where you could almost pick out individual instruments in the mix. It appears that singer Jonsi took all the sunshine and most of the pop song structure away for use in his solo career, because Valtari is a return to the epically somber and sonically all-encompassing approach the band perfected on their first few albums. Filled with giant washes of sound bathed in reverb, echoing keyboards, smears of strings, and massed backing vocals, the album ebbs and flows from giant crescendos to heartbreakingly intimate moments with Jonsi's otherworldly voice riding the waves like a mythical dolphin. Each song creates its own insular world of atmosphere and emotion that can be so intense that when they end (usually after a solid six to eight minutes), the silence makes it feel like you've been yanked harshly out of a reverie. It's a shocking sensation but it speaks to how completely the band is able to transport the listener out of the day to day and into a magical realm. As is usually the case, it's a realm of graceful melancholy that comes across as a bit gloomy, until Jonsi begins to sing in his angelic croon, that is, and you are lifted. On the surface, Valtari may seem like a step back for the band, but instead of just retreading the past, the album is one of their best; a refined display of their musical power with breathtaking dynamics and enough emotion to flood an ocean.
Sigur Rós - Valtari ( flac 309mb)
01 Ég Anda 6:15
02 Ekki Múkk 7:44
03 Varúð 6:37
04 Rembihnútur 5:05
05 Dauðalogn 6:37
06 Varðeldur 6:08
07 Valtari 8:19
08 Fjögur Píanó 7:50
Bonus
09 Kvistur 5:30
10 Logn 8:14
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Though it's not necessarily a bad quality, post-rock (especially as it trends to the more ambient side of things), can be an awfully passive listening experience, sweeping the listeners up in drifting buildup and inevitable crescendos without ever really confronting them. Challenging this paradigm, Sigur Rós get sonically adventurous with their seventh album, Kveikur, which finds the Icelandic three-piece delivering a darker and more aggressive sound on one of their most daring albums to date. From the opening moments of "Brennisteinn," the album's opening track that thrums to life through a layer of crackling static with a guttural, churning bassline, it's clear that the band aren't looking for gentle complacency from the listener. While the album might not be aggressive in the traditional sense, with big loud guitars and howling vocals, there's an eerie tension that runs throughout the album that counteracts the soothing flow of Jonsi's drifting falsetto, making the songs feel like a good dream that's always on the verge of going bad. While Kveikur isn't a complete reinvention of their sound, it's the kind of palette shift that shows just how versatile and creative Sigur Rós can be. Few bands can subvert the expectations of the listener quite like this, and even fewer can do it after seven albums. Kveikur isn't the kind of post-rock album that you throw on to listen to as you contemplate the changing of the leaves, but rather an album that explores the differences between the comforts of the day and the anxieties of the night, blending the bright and the brooding to create something bold and beautiful.
Sigur Ros - Kveikur (flac 425mb)
01 Brennisteinn 7:45
02 Hrafntinna 6:23
03 Ísjaki 5:03
04 Yfirborð 4:19
05 Stormur 4:55
06 Kveikur 5:55
07 Rafstraumur 4:58
08 Bláþráður 5:12
09 Var 3:44
Bonus
10 Brennisteinn (Blanck Mass Instrumental Remix) 10:40
11 Hryggjarsúla 5:05
12 Ofbirta 4:12
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There's been surprisingly little commotion surrounding this release, probably because most people just haven't been sure what to make of it. Route One presents the group's next rendition of its foray into unapologetically ambient territory. Supposedly Route One was a natural step forward as Liminal, the band's 'endless' mixtape, continues to unfold. Procedurally generated music created via programs has been popping for a while now, but the results have yet to make the unique process worth it despite the many slants used to increase some supposed inherent artistic value. For Brian Eno's Reflection, it was the downloadable application that enabled the user to witness the music during its creation--for Route One, the twist is how it was presented as a piece of performance art, I suppose in an effort to capture the desolate beauty of the band's home country as the they livestreamed a 24-hour drive across Iceland while generating the music for Route One. .
Cutting 24 hours of music down to the best 40 minutes definitely helped these 8 tracks to feel and sound more special. Sigur Rós has always been a band that knows how to put beautiful things on display, and this still sounds like a Sigur Rós release from the very first note in the first track. There are still those chilling, soaring passages that bring a cold, peaceful atmosphere to the listener that we expect from the group, especially in the second half. Unfortunately, it seems to be beauty for only beauty's sake, which at this point in Sigur Rós' career is probably not a good thing.
Sigur Rós - Route One (flac 208mb)
01 63º32'43.7"N 19º43'46.3"W 2:23
02 63º47'36.2"N 18º02'16.9"W 4:51
03 64º02'44.1"N 16º10'48.5"W 4:57
04 64º08'43.3"N 21º55'38.8"W 7:38
05 64º46'34.1"N 14º02'55.8"W 7:06
06 65º27'29.1"N 15º31'56.0"W 5:01
07 65º30'17.9"N 18º37'01.3"W 3:14
08 65º38'27.9"N 20º16'56.9"W 4:55
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Today's artists excel over pretty much all other (heavy) rock music, while many have looked across space for inspiration and atmosphere, our boys instead went into the earth. and who knows what impossible number of variables had to come together just so in order to create that magic (yes) that they have, regardless of explanation. that these musicians have gone on to tour and sell-out shows in europe, the americas, and the pacific (something relatively few musicians do) speaks quite a bit considering their unique sound. or vice-versa, because they don't really sound like anyone else, right? They're as much slowcore as they are post-rock, and they certainly have their orchestral, operatic, and minimalistic moments as well, in short ' Victory Rose ' evokes (strong) emotions. .......N-Joy
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Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed the group in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name is Icelandic wordplay: while the individual words Sigur and Rós mean, respectively, Victory and Rose, "Victory Rose" wouldn't be grammatically correct; the name is actually borrowed from Jónsi's younger sister Sigurrós, who was born a few days before the band was formed, and then split into two words. They soon won a record deal with the local Sugarcubes-owned record label Bad Taste, because they thought the falsetto vocals were very cute and would appeal to teenage girls. In 1997, they released Von meaning "hope" and in 1998 a remix collection named Von brigði This name is also Icelandic wordplay: Vonbrigði means "disappointment", but Von brigði means "variations on Von". The band was joined by Kjartan Sveinsson on keyboards in 1998. He is the only member of Sigur Rós with musical training, and has contributed most of the orchestral and string arrangements for their later work
International acclaim came with 1999's Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning"). The band attracted a huge critical acclaim throughout the world in the second half of 2000, particularly in america, after they made the move to offer it as a free download on Napster, who impressed by it, really brought them into the picture. Tens of thousands downloads later and the musiclabels were in a franctic hunt to sign them, they ended up with MCA who let them retain the most artistic freedom. The band toured north america for the first time in april and may 2001, and the vast majority of the dates sold out straight away. perhaps due to the hype in the american media, the shows were attended by many big name celebrities, somewhat to the band's bemusement.The album's reputation spread by word of mouth over the following two years. Soon critics worldwide were praising it effusively, and the band was playing support to established acts such as Radiohead. Three songs, "Ágætis byrjun", "Svefn-g-englar", and a live take, from a summer 2000 concert in Denmark, of the then-unreleased "Njósnavélin" (later 'unnamed' "Untitled #4") appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Vanilla Sky. Sigur Rós spent the first three months of 2001 off the road, setting up their own studio and making their third album. Meanwhile, Ágætis Byrjun found a label in the U.S. and worldwide press became increasingly positive and varied; both Entertainment Weekly and The Wire ran features on the band. The group began touring again in April, playing more shows in Europe, a handful in the States, and several more in Japan throughout the remainder of the year. By the end of the year, Ágætis Byrjun had won the Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement in Music; it was also declared Iceland's Best Album of the Century.
In 2001, Sigur Rós christened their newly completed studio by recording an EP titled Rímur with an Icelandic fisherman named Steindór Andersen. The EP contains six songs, all of which feature Steindór Andersen reciting traditional Icelandic rímur poetry. Sigur Rós accompany him on three songs. Two songs feature Steindór alone. The last song on the EP, "Lækurinn", is a duet with Sigurður Sigurðarson. A thousand copies of the EP were printed and sold during the spring tour of 2001. The EP was sold in a blank-white-paper case. In 2001 the band toured in Canada, performing at Massey Hall in Toronto in September. Drummer Ágúst left the band after the recording of Ágætis byrjun and was replaced by Orri Páll Dýrason. In 2002, their highly anticipated follow-up album ( ) was released. Upon release all tracks on the album were untitled, though the band later published song names on their website. All of the lyrics on ( ) are sung in Vonlenska, also known as Hopelandic, a language without semantic meaning, which resembles the phonology of the Icelandic language. It has also been said that the listener is supposed to interpret their own meanings of the lyrics which can then be written in the blank pages in the album booklet.
In 2002, the band also wrote an original score for the Bodyscript dance production by Wayne McGregor Random Dance in collaboration with Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Arts Council England. Sigur Rós collaborated with Radiohead in October 2003 to compose music for Merce Cunningham's dance piece Split Sides; Sigur Rós's three tracks were released on the March 2004 EP Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do.
Their fourth album, Takk... (["Thanks...") employs the distinctive sound of their second album in a more rock oriented structure with greater use of the guitar, and was released in September 2005. "Hoppípolla" "Hopping into puddles"), the second official single from Takk..., was released in November alongside a new studio remake of "Hafsól" ("Ocean Sun"), a song that was previously released on the band's 1997 debut, Von. "Hoppípolla" was used in the trailers for the BBC's natural history series Planet Earth in 2006, as well as the closing credits for the 2006 FA Cup final, ITV's coverage of the 2006 Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, advertisements for the BBC's coverage of England games during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, on television advertisements for RTÉ's Gaelic games coverage in Ireland, and on an advertisement for Oxfam. It was also used in the final scene of the movie Penelope, for the trailer of the film Children of Men and for the trailer of the film Slumdog Millionaire.
An extended Sæglópur EP was released in July 2006 in most parts of the world and in August in the United States. Its original release was scheduled in May, but because of the sudden demand of "Hoppípolla" it was pushed back from that date. Sigur Rós recorded three new songs to appear on the EP ("Refur", "Ó friður", and "Kafari"). In July 2006, Sigur Rós finished a major world tour with stops in Europe, the United States (where they played a headline show at the Hollywood Bowl), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Japan. Upon return to their homeland, Sigur Rós provided a series of free surprise outdoor concerts throughout Iceland in July and August, playing in various venues such as abandoned bunkers and community coffee shops, all of which were included in the 2007 documentary film Heima. They also performed twice in the United States in February.
In August 2007, a limited DVD+CD edition of the 2002 soundtrack to the documentary Hlemmur was released. Hvarf/Heim was released on 5 November (6 November in the U.S.), a double compilation album containing studio versions of previously unreleased songs — "Salka" [ˈsalka], "Hljómalind" (formerly known as "Rokklagið"), "Í Gær" [i ˈcaɪ̯r] and "Von" on Hvarf, and acoustic studio versions of the songs: "Samskeyti" "Starálfur""Vaka" "Ágætis Byrjun", "Heysátan" and "Von", on Heim. On the same day (20 November in the U.S.) Heima, a live DVD of the previous summer's Iceland tour, was released. Just prior to the release of Hvarf/Heim, on 29 October, a single named "Hljómalind" was released.
The band's fifth regular studio album Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust ("with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly"), recorded with producer Flood in downtown Reykjavík, was released in June 2008 to generally positive reviews. Stylistically different from their earlier releases, it featured fewer strings and more guitar, and had more pop-oriented songs, making it "the group's most accessible effort" while maintaining the "majestic beauty that defines the band's music. The final track "All Alright" is the band's first to be sung in English, though all the other lyrics are in Icelandic.
The band were announced as a headlining act for the 2008 Splendour in the Grass Festival in Byron Bay, Australia, Latitude Festival 2008, and the 2008 La Route du Rock Festival in St Malo, France. In addition, the band performed a late-night set at the 2008 Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, where they blew a speaker at the end of their second song. Jónsi Birgisson commented, "The piano is exploding, I think," one of the few things spoken in English. The band released the first song from the album titled "Gobbledigook" for free on their website, along with a music video. On 8 June, the whole album was made available for free streaming on their website and Last.fm.
In autumn 2008 Sigur Rós embarked on a world tour supporting their newly released album. The band played as a four-piece without Amiina and the brass band, the first time the band had played as a four-piece in seven years. The tour started on 17 September 2008 in the United States, at the United Palace Theater in New York City, and finished with a concert in Reykjavík at Laugardalshöll on 23 November 2008. The majority of the tour was European with the exception of concerts in the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The group ended its hiatus in April of 2010, playing a set at the Coachella Festival. In October of 2011, they released their first live album, Inni, a document of their 2008 tour. Their understated sixth studio album, Valtari (Steamroller), was issued in May of the following year. Quickly returning, Sigur Rós took their sound in a darker, more aggressive direction with their seventh album, 2013's Kveikur, which found them pushing their sound into unsettling areas. After the album's release the band stayed busy touring. They also branched out, making appearances on both the animated series The Simpsons and HBO's Game of Thrones. In 2017, they collaborated with Somers on two instrumental recordings for a season four episode of Black Mirror. Also that year, to coincide with their own Norður og Niður Festival in Iceland, they released the soundtrack/film production Route One, as well as the Jónsi and Somers EP All Animals. Both albums were also reissued on vinyl for Record Store Day, and released to digital platforms in 2018.
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With their fifth full-length album, Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (translated as With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly), Sigur Rós have taken the poppy, sunshiny leanings of their previous album a step further into the light. The band has always been known for otherworldly soundscapes, and while there is enough of that here to keep the faithful happy, the band also writes straightforward, three-minute pop songs like the incredible catchy, sticky-sweet duo ("Gobbldigook," "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur") that kick the album off like the first rays of the morning sun blazing through your bedroom window. That feeling continues on through the album as both the joyously soaring vocals and the buoyant melodies keep things floating happily on air. The arrangement of sound is quite different from previous albums, too. In the past their sound was characterized by a great wash of instruments merging together into great, gently heaving walls and waves of sound; on this album, for the most part, you can pick out individual instruments whether it's the acoustic guitar that underpins many of the songs (and provides the main backing on the intimate and quite lovely, and quite un-Sigur Rós-like, "Illgresi") or the lone piano that begins "Ára Bátur" (which does expand out into an epic undertaking with over 90 people including the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy's Choir eventually playing on the track). Despite the few tracks that reach for the heavens, for the first time the band sounds grounded and stripped down. Songs like "Festival," with its pounding bassline and charging drums, and the melancholy album closer, "All Alright," which is based on a lonely piano figure (and features lyrics sung in English for the first time in the group's history), are firmly tethered to earth and shorn of excess artifice. In the past it was easy to be impressed with the sound of Sigur Rós, to be carried away by the grandeur of the band and be hit hard by the titanic emotions. On Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust you can really hear the human hearts behind the wall of sound, and while the emotional impact is on a smaller scale, somehow it is even more affecting.
Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust (flac 283mb)
01 Gobbledigook 3:05
02 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur 4:05
03 Góðan daginn 5:15
04 Við spilum endalaust 3:33
05 Festival 9:24
06 Með suð í eyrum 4:56
07 Ára bátur 8:57
08 Illgresi 4:13
09 Fljótavík 3:49
10 Straumnes 2:01
11 All Alright 6:21
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When Sigur Rós played the last shows of their 2008 tour, they brought in a filmmaker, Vincent Morisset, to document the shows and also decided to record them as well. (A decision that proved wise as the band’s future was thrown into doubt after the sessions for the next album were started, then shelved, and the band went on hiatus.) Inni is the collated result of two nights of live sets at the Alexandra Palace in London and features songs drawn from the band’s long career and, as with the rest of the tour, is played by just the core quartet with no string section or extra musicians. Sigur Rós hadn’t played such stripped-down (for them) shows for years and the sound just the four of them create is stunning. The guitars crash in waves of color and tone, the keys shimmer like clouds of birds, and the overall dynamics within each song are impressive. Add Jónsi’s otherworldly vocals (which don’t suffer at all from being live) and it’s exactly what you’d expect from a band that had perfected its sound over the years. The interesting thing about Inni is that, not only do the songs capture the hypnotic emotions the band can whip up and then hone in studio, they have an extra drive and passion that is almost revelatory to hear. The only complaint one might have about the set is that at two discs, it can be a long haul to get from beginning to end. That being said, if you’ve stuck with the band this long, you not only don’t fear the long haul, but you relish it. It's a fitting album that sums up and shines a light on all the things that make/made the band so enthralling.
Sigur Ros - Inni (flac 581mb)
01 Svefn-g-englar 10:12
02 Glósóli 6:52
03 Ný batterí 8:38
04 Fljótavík 3:38
05 Við spilum endalaust 3:58
06 Hoppípolla 4:13
07 Með Blóðnasir 2:22
08 Inní mér syngur vitleysingur 4:08
09 E-Bow 9:09
10 Sæglópur 7:40
11 Festival 7:35
12 Hafsól 8:28
13 All Alright 5:41
14 Popplagið 15:23
15 Lúppulagið [bonus track] 5:59
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After taking a long break from recording new material, Sigur Rós' sixth album, Valtari, is a welcome return for the Icelandic soundscape pioneers. Their previous album Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust had been their most intimate and cheerful record to date with songs that could actually be called "songs" and the band stripping their sound down to the point where you could almost pick out individual instruments in the mix. It appears that singer Jonsi took all the sunshine and most of the pop song structure away for use in his solo career, because Valtari is a return to the epically somber and sonically all-encompassing approach the band perfected on their first few albums. Filled with giant washes of sound bathed in reverb, echoing keyboards, smears of strings, and massed backing vocals, the album ebbs and flows from giant crescendos to heartbreakingly intimate moments with Jonsi's otherworldly voice riding the waves like a mythical dolphin. Each song creates its own insular world of atmosphere and emotion that can be so intense that when they end (usually after a solid six to eight minutes), the silence makes it feel like you've been yanked harshly out of a reverie. It's a shocking sensation but it speaks to how completely the band is able to transport the listener out of the day to day and into a magical realm. As is usually the case, it's a realm of graceful melancholy that comes across as a bit gloomy, until Jonsi begins to sing in his angelic croon, that is, and you are lifted. On the surface, Valtari may seem like a step back for the band, but instead of just retreading the past, the album is one of their best; a refined display of their musical power with breathtaking dynamics and enough emotion to flood an ocean.
Sigur Rós - Valtari ( flac 309mb)
01 Ég Anda 6:15
02 Ekki Múkk 7:44
03 Varúð 6:37
04 Rembihnútur 5:05
05 Dauðalogn 6:37
06 Varðeldur 6:08
07 Valtari 8:19
08 Fjögur Píanó 7:50
Bonus
09 Kvistur 5:30
10 Logn 8:14
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Though it's not necessarily a bad quality, post-rock (especially as it trends to the more ambient side of things), can be an awfully passive listening experience, sweeping the listeners up in drifting buildup and inevitable crescendos without ever really confronting them. Challenging this paradigm, Sigur Rós get sonically adventurous with their seventh album, Kveikur, which finds the Icelandic three-piece delivering a darker and more aggressive sound on one of their most daring albums to date. From the opening moments of "Brennisteinn," the album's opening track that thrums to life through a layer of crackling static with a guttural, churning bassline, it's clear that the band aren't looking for gentle complacency from the listener. While the album might not be aggressive in the traditional sense, with big loud guitars and howling vocals, there's an eerie tension that runs throughout the album that counteracts the soothing flow of Jonsi's drifting falsetto, making the songs feel like a good dream that's always on the verge of going bad. While Kveikur isn't a complete reinvention of their sound, it's the kind of palette shift that shows just how versatile and creative Sigur Rós can be. Few bands can subvert the expectations of the listener quite like this, and even fewer can do it after seven albums. Kveikur isn't the kind of post-rock album that you throw on to listen to as you contemplate the changing of the leaves, but rather an album that explores the differences between the comforts of the day and the anxieties of the night, blending the bright and the brooding to create something bold and beautiful.
Sigur Ros - Kveikur (flac 425mb)
01 Brennisteinn 7:45
02 Hrafntinna 6:23
03 Ísjaki 5:03
04 Yfirborð 4:19
05 Stormur 4:55
06 Kveikur 5:55
07 Rafstraumur 4:58
08 Bláþráður 5:12
09 Var 3:44
Bonus
10 Brennisteinn (Blanck Mass Instrumental Remix) 10:40
11 Hryggjarsúla 5:05
12 Ofbirta 4:12
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There's been surprisingly little commotion surrounding this release, probably because most people just haven't been sure what to make of it. Route One presents the group's next rendition of its foray into unapologetically ambient territory. Supposedly Route One was a natural step forward as Liminal, the band's 'endless' mixtape, continues to unfold. Procedurally generated music created via programs has been popping for a while now, but the results have yet to make the unique process worth it despite the many slants used to increase some supposed inherent artistic value. For Brian Eno's Reflection, it was the downloadable application that enabled the user to witness the music during its creation--for Route One, the twist is how it was presented as a piece of performance art, I suppose in an effort to capture the desolate beauty of the band's home country as the they livestreamed a 24-hour drive across Iceland while generating the music for Route One. .
Cutting 24 hours of music down to the best 40 minutes definitely helped these 8 tracks to feel and sound more special. Sigur Rós has always been a band that knows how to put beautiful things on display, and this still sounds like a Sigur Rós release from the very first note in the first track. There are still those chilling, soaring passages that bring a cold, peaceful atmosphere to the listener that we expect from the group, especially in the second half. Unfortunately, it seems to be beauty for only beauty's sake, which at this point in Sigur Rós' career is probably not a good thing.
Sigur Rós - Route One (flac 208mb)
01 63º32'43.7"N 19º43'46.3"W 2:23
02 63º47'36.2"N 18º02'16.9"W 4:51
03 64º02'44.1"N 16º10'48.5"W 4:57
04 64º08'43.3"N 21º55'38.8"W 7:38
05 64º46'34.1"N 14º02'55.8"W 7:06
06 65º27'29.1"N 15º31'56.0"W 5:01
07 65º30'17.9"N 18º37'01.3"W 3:14
08 65º38'27.9"N 20º16'56.9"W 4:55
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There comes a time when even the vastest of funds cannot and will fail to sustain. I notice how selective you are when forming an opinion, in that you most often lean to the negative/cynical/defeatist scenario. Earth is already a miserable place for millions of souls! The ‘elite’ already live estranged from the common people - no change there either. There are also others who will be able to survive long after the elite have perished (in such a scenario as you propose). Not all humans are destroying the planet - only some aided by the ignorant people they are able to socialise & seduce. However, more people are becoming aware and are making changes that will be difficult for the elite to make capital from. It would be pleasant, once in awhile, if you would care to look that way also and to commend them for standing up and apart in a world that perceives them largely as problematic non-conformists.
ReplyDeleteMost humans are not ready to lose their religion but this does not mean that those that abide by certain credos are not capable of becoming and remaining sustainable humans. In fact, I would direct you to the following page so that you might be able to understand that it is not religion, per se, that destroys the earth nor does it condone harming the environment - it is human understanding concerning the core of almost all religions that falls down in this area - ergo, it is human, not religious error that defies sanity in areas of reproduction and environmental responsibility. I have seen how religions have evolved and are still evolving on a spiritual level and I have seen religious communities come together for the sake of common causes that prove that spiritual evolution can be triggered via religious pathways.
See : https://www.unenvironment.org/about-un-environment-programme/faith-earth-initiative/how-religions-are-involved-environmental
Personally, I do not think there is a G*d above ourselves and all that is as I perceive the universe and all within it as one single actuality - even if simultaneous/multiple realities exist. I believe I am not the only one to have this or a similar view of life, so that, by calling G*d a ‘creep’ you are simply adding to the status quo of ignorance and feeding the negative. This does nothing but perpetuate the cycle of ignorance that prevents so many from rising above the physical/material realm that is used by the few to enslave mind, heart and soul so that they can continue to capitalise upon it. Such exploitation serves to portray the insane and vicious circle that operates within the corporate capitalist system today.
In short, I would propose that you are part of those problems that you so rudely bemoan!
On a lighter note - thanks for the music :)
Well said aspie sister.
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