ALBUM: Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps

There are many words that spring to mind around this side-project of Sigur Ros' lead singer Jonsi Birgisson: Ambient, Ethereal, other-wordly and erm... bindun?

While admittedly the compositions are more stripped back than the full band, they feature Sigur Ros' string section Amiina, the occasional choir, and a penchant for the epic. A return to Sigur Ros pre-Takk without any of their darkness. But the overall sound is pretty darn similar, complete with twisted pianos and rewinded reverb.

That being said, it still is an amazingly beautiful and intimate record, whose only real reference points being the aforementioned Sigur Ros, undisputed kings of their own "Slow-motion Rock" as well as the softer ends of "post-rock" veterans such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You Black Emperor. But even Godspeed's quietest lolloping is much too busy being grand and epic to be compared to the sonic beauty on display here.

While songs by other artists seem to have been made longer in the name of being "EPIC", these songs, with many clocking in over 8 minutes, are long because that's exactly what they need. A record made by lovers, but not necessarily for them.

For those already fans of Sigur Ros, there's not huge amount of new ideas here, yet what is here is still extremely enjoyable. For those who aren't yet acquainted with those Icelandic masters, this is another example of how you are really missing out.

8/10

Riceboy Sleeps is out now in Europe on EMI/Parlophone.

New múm album!

As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to go to Iceland. And ever since I saw the Kings of of Icelandic music Sigur Ros' documentary "Heima", I've REALLY wanted to go to Iceland. One of the standout albums of 2007 to me was múm's Go Go Smear The Poison Ivy, who had only come to my attention thanks to their association with the aforementioned Sigur Ros and my then obsession with Queen of Icelandic music Bjork.

I don't know if its the lack of trees (or indeed, looking like anywhere else on Earth, at all), the fashion for wearing thick knitted jumpers or their relative remoteness, but all the music produced in Iceland has its own unique style and sensibility.

So when I heard that múm were releasing a new album, literally some ten minutes ago, I couldn't wait to post a vacuous raving blog post about my love of Icelandic music. As you may have guessed from the picture above, it will be called Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know and continues their vein of quirky indie folk.

I've heard opening track "If I Were A Fish", which is not only amazingly titled, but sounds amazing too.

Sing Along To Songs You Don't Know is released on August 24.

Late Night Crap: Bands that I want to see live

Okay, this is a fairly generic list, but I have some rules, because without rules, people would be beating each other up and defecating everywhere. Maybe.

Rule #1: Band must still be active (i.e. alive and still with their "classic line-up", unless stated)
Rule #2: The assumption is that they will be at theiw own gig, playing their "hits".

List:
Minus The Bear
Seem like they would be a laugh, and have been heavily recommended as a great live band.

Sonic Youth
My friend saw them play Daydream Nation in its entirety. Arsehole.

Animal Collective
Said friend also saw these guys. Twice.

Beck

Daft Punk
I saw Muse at Wembley on the last date that Daft Punk played England. After listening to Alive 2007, I soon realised that this was big mistake.

Sigur Ros
Especially at an outdoor gig in the middle of nowhere, with the band playing on a homemade stage during Iceland's neverending summer just like on that documentary of theirs.


Wow, I need to listen to some more music.

Goodnight.

New Sigur Ros Album!

I know its old news now, but Sigur Ros have announced details of their new album out on June 23rd. It is going to be called Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, which roughly translates as "With A Buzzing In Our Ears We Play Endlessly". It also features at least one track in English ("All Alright") and is a bit of a change in direction for the band - who have said they were greatly influenced by their acoustic shows in Iceland that were featured in their documentary Heima.

Track Listing:

1. "Gobbledigook" – 3:05
2. "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" (Within me a lunatic sings) – 4:05
3. "Góðan daginn" (Good day) – 5:15
4. "Við spilum endalaust" (We play endlessly) – 3:33
5. "Festival" – 9:24
6. "Suð í eyrum" (Buzz in ears) – 4:56
7. "Ára bátur" (Row boat) – 8:57
8. "Illgresi" (Weeds) – 4:13
9. "Fljótavík" [A place in Iceland] – 3:49
10. "Straumnes" [A mountain near Fljótavík] – 2:01
11. "All alright" – 6:21

Gobbledigook was made free from sigurros.com, where the whole album is currently streaming, as well as Last.fm, where the album is free to listen to ahead of its release.

It is also availiable as a deluxe "Discbox" for $120 (£60) similar to Radiohead's self-released double-vinyl, double-cd gift set for last year's alum In Rainbows.

Sigur Ros Homepage

MySpace Mystery Tour, Again

This time, we kick off with a local band who I stumbled across via Facebook, strangely. They are from Dartford in Kent, where I went to School, and despite this, they don't suck.

Okay, so Post-Rock bands are getting a little more commonplace, but CODES IN THE CLOUDS do one of the better Explosions In The Sky impressions I've ever seen. Their debut single "Distant Street Lights" could be on any of EITS's albums and I would never have noticed the difference. Some would say this is insulting, and it is to a point, but they do seem jolly good for a band that are still (essentially) on the toilet circuit. The guys are signed to British indie label Erased Tapes.

www.myspace.com/codesintheclouds

One of their top friends, THE BRITISH EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, even have a song named "Cracks in the Clouds". This Newcastle based group have a slightly less derivative sound, but I fear that may only be because I don't know enough about post-rock. Related more closely to Múm than their countrymates Sigur Ros, their stuttered electronica also reminds me of Four Tet's less awkward moments and Low's subtle and dark stylings. However, none of this hides what is essentially some fantastically poppy arrangements that have me torn between declaring these guys a collective genius or just being a bit too try-hard and pretentious.

http://www.myspace.com/thebritishexpeditionaryforce

From here, we come across Danish indie-pop in the form of EFTERKLANG. Like Architecture In Helsinki but without all that really annoying stuff that happens when they actually play a song, you know, the music bit. "Caravan" is about at atmospheric and orchestral as this sort of stuff gets, but its a wonder why no one has ever done before. My guess is they tryed and ended up sounding too much like The Arcade Fire for anyone to notice. In fact they've released two albums and the name does seem a bit familiar; one of these bands that something like the London Lite interviews because they are vaguely on the cusp of being massive but are also a bit leftfield - only not quite enough to offend their readers.

They are currently touring North America and have an absolute shitload of UK festival appearances lined up over the summer. Probably worth a go.

http://www.myspace.com/efterklang

I clicked on a link called RUMRAKET, which sounded as if it was going to be a boy-girl duo who combine hard house samples with live percussion based around smashing their heads against dustbins and possible each other. Luckily, however, it appears to be a burgeoning (although with a large roster and many releases to their credit) Scandinavian record label - in the same way that Ed Banger are to French House, Rumraket is to Northern European Indietronica. They've even got Amiina, the string quartet who play with Sigur Ros and US Hype band Grizzly Bear signed up, and are actually formed by the previous group, Efterklang.


Now I'm off to see if they've got a label sampler for sale...

http://www.myspace.com/rumraket

The Unpronounceables

As none of you may know, I co-host a two-hour long radio show on an Internet station that no one ever listens to, that also happens to be part of the university where I am "studying". Although most of the time we try and play fairly radio-friendly mainstream-ish stuff, it did make me wonder about the pronunciation of certain band names, who seem to have made a conscious decision to not be able to be said on the radio.

I mean, obviously you can't swear. At all. Not even after 9pm really. So SHITDISCO and HOLY FUCK are out. As is ANAL CUNT, but that does without saying. Which is lucky because we aren't allowed to.

But, !!!, at least, when I first heard about them, were completely unpronounceable. Although now I know them as CHKCHKCHK as opposed to "that band that is spelt with 3 exclamation marks", technically speaking that isn't really right either. According to their website "!!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. Chk Chk Chk is the most common pronunciation, but they could just as easily be called Pow Pow Pow, Bam Bam Bam, Uh Uh Uh, etc". Riiiight.

In similar confusion, recent hype band MGMT, referred to most as their abbreviation suggests (i.e. emm gee emm tee), they used to be known as "The Management" and are still occasionally referred to as much by, well, me, in the same way that MSTRKRFT or that Primal Scream album XTRMNTR are spelt without vowels like a garbled text message from your 13 year old cousin.

Another petty annoyance is the pronunciation of toytronica duo PSAPP. Pronouncing it wrong makes it sound like the sound of a bottle of lemonade opening. Protip: drop the first and last letters.

But while these band's confusing names are somewhat self-inflicted, probably to confuse those "out of the loop", for some bands, their foreign names can be a problem. Case in point, absolutely awesome "slow-motion rock band" SIGUR ROS is more than often pronounced in the very English corruption "Sigger Ross", whereas in reality the pronunciation is closer to "See your rose". Their compatriots MUM are also pronounced differently . (actually "moom")

But I haven't got a clue how on earth to pronounce LES SAVY FAV.

COMING SOON: something more interesting.

At Home with Sigur Ros

The other night I watched Sigur Ros' film Heima. I realise I'm not exactly up-to-date with this, and its been out a few months now, but it was on my Christmas List, but as no one bought it for me, so I got it as a late Christmas present to myself.

And I have to say, it's absolutely brilliant.

This double-disc DVD documents the band's 2006 homecoming (Heima means "at home") where they decided to pay back Iceland for supporting them all this time, playing anywhere and everywhere for absolutely free. Playing the small villages and towns across the island, they only expected a few people to turn up, but are pleasantly surprised that entire towns and villages come and see them, toddlers and grandparents too.

In terms of documentary, not much new is learnt. We don't get a magical new insight into life on the road, or get to see the band as they are, but this isn't because the documentary doesn't include it. IT is made pretty plain that this band are still humble and grateful for their success, and are possibly the most genuine group of people out there. Interviews with all of the band, including the string section Amiina are set before, after and during live excerpts of the band playing their erm... "hits".

Alongside this are fantastic panoramic views of the Icelandic countryside that fit in so well with the music you begin wonder how you could ever listen to it anywhere else. If nothing else, the views allow you to finally realise how organic Sigur Ros' music really is. It makes it as natural as the green hills and the black sandy beachs from where they've come. And the eagerness of the Icelandic people to welcome back this massively talented group.

This film is a must-watch for fans of Sigur Ros, and also something you should probably see if you are a general fan of Iceland, the countryside and beautiful music. The lush landscapes and eesoundscapes on offer will leave you begging for more.

As for icelandic talent, Bjork who?

Trailer
Official Site