Why the hate for Sigur Ros?

Not really doing it for me.

it's a neat album, but i think valtari was a bit better.

i liked the riceboysleepiness of valtari.

the opening track on this one kind of announces itself and then ... the album goes nowhere.

Loved Valtari .. but the Valtari Film Experiment did nothing for me whatsoever - actually, it was at risk of making Valtari slightly less good.

Surprised to hear Sigur Ros in a cream cheese advert ...

Having completed a Gus Gus best of, now making a CDR80 of Sigur Ros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMbv3Lm8BCQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qVtQItpmUg

^ Just found while pottering on the internet. Surprised I hadn't heard before.

http://fieldrecording.net/2014/08/06/sound-jokulsarlon-1/

Still my favourite initial exchange of any thread, anyways, much expanded ágætis byrjun coming soon -

"announcing the expanded limited edition boxset of ágætis byrjun

to mark its 16th birthday, a definitive, much expanded edition of ágætis byrjun is in the works for early summer. the deluxe boxset edition will feature previously unheard studio recordings and rare live versions from this pivotal period in the band's development, as well as a welter of photographic and documentary material from their personal archives and plenty more besides. it will be a beautiful thing to behold, and the last word in completist editions of sigur rós catalogue releases.

while we are still finalising design and content - and will share with you as soon as it's fixed - we wanted you to know about this now [as well as other expanded editions of von and ( )], since the band's first three albums have all just become available on re-mastered, heavyweight vinyl for the first time in ages. go either look for the vinyl reissues now, or hang on for something grander still."

wax cylinder?

man, i remember when sigur ros were (in my mind) the most exciting band in the world. i had to order the ny batteri EP from my local indie and i devoured ágætis byrjun when it came out. but never has my interest in a band waned so quickly than after that. but those records were GOOD and I could be tempted to return to them. Think I still have Ny Batteri and ágætis byrjun in their OG cardboard sleeves. Wonder if they're worth anything at all.

This remains my favourite thing they ever did. Verges on black metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTGLiV6QwZA

man, i remember when sigur ros were (in my mind) the most exciting band in the world. i had to order the ny batteri EP from my local indie and i devoured ágætis byrjun when it came out. but never has my interest in a band waned so quickly than after that. but those records were GOOD and I could be tempted to return to them. Think I still have Ny Batteri and ágætis byrjun in their OG cardboard sleeves. Wonder if they're worth anything at all.

I loved Ágætis byrjun too. I revisited it recently and still enjoyed it. (), however, is boring in 2015.

yeah everything they did afterwards sounded very boring indeed. tv ident music. or am i just saying that because a tv station in the UK did use one of their songs as an ident? i liked SR when they hinted at folky grimness, but they decided to go down a more ambient/Radiohead-lite path I wasn't mad keen on. 2000 felt like post-rock was going to be the saviour of music music but so few bands managed to follow up on their promises.

Agetis Byrjun is easily their worst album.

( ) has my fave bits on it.

I had the same experience. Absolutely blown away by the Sven-g-Englar and Ny Batteri singles, and I loved the album. I thought it was a refreshing take on the quiet/loud dynamic that Mogwai and Godspeed were doing--it was just more sensuous and less didactic. My love of that record kept me on board for ( ) and Takk, though I never really connected beyond a couple of tracks on that latter album. I never bought another album after that though I paid attention to singles.

Now I'm totally uninterested in new stuff and the idea of going back to those earlier albums feels like a chore, aside from some nostalgia for Sven-g-Englar.

remember REALLY liking (). i still have it but haven't felt a desire to hear it in years. i jumped off the bus after that though.

Absolutely loved Agetis Bryjun and ( ), was pretty meh on Takk, really enjoyed Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, and haven't been too big either way on the ones since.

Ny Batteri and Sven-G-Englar are possibly my two favorite songs by them. I lost track after Takk.... they're kind of a one-trick pony, no? Whichever album you heard first might be your favorite by them, they seem exchangeable. They make a good first impression but as soon as you get to a second album it feels like more of the same. A friend describes them as the AC/DC of post-rock.

the last album was really good and intense and kinda post-hardcorey in a way. haven't really listened to it since it came out though

Some of you that faded away with Takk should really give Með suð... a go, it really is quite an outlier from the rest of their discography. It's pretty lacking in post-rock, the songs are more traditionally formed and have a lot of folk and almost jazz influenced bits. A couple of the songs remind me of Animal Collective too. It doesn't all work, but it worked for me as a way to get interested in them again, since they weren't chasing down the same formula.

Of their relatively recent releases, I love this track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DnPtTzUb9s

I really liked Med Sus i Eyrum... and the first Jonsi solo album even more. Lost track after that. I've always liked them most when they played a sort of twisted popmusic. My favorite song on Agætis is Staralfur.

Mind you, I still find it odd to hear them sound-tracking Philadelphia Cream Cheese and (I think, Jonsi solo) HSBC adverts.

i'm listening to agaetis for the first time in about 10 years and maybe i'm falling in love with these guys all over again. might be ready for a 1999 revival round my way soon.

philadelphia is a quality cream cheese

I'm not disputing that, Jón.

Because it's ambient noodling for fuck's sake. Use your ears.

Ágætis byrjun

live at íslenska óperan 1999

at 21.00 gmt friday, to mark the 16th birthday of their second album, ágætis byrjun, sigur rós will be streaming the release day concert played at the icelandic opera house on june 12, 1999. unless you were there, this 1hr 40min never before heard concert, will be streamed through once in its entirety. exclusively via agaetis.sigur-ros.co.uk, at 21.00 Icelandic time (14.00 pst / 17.00 est / 22.00 bst / 23.00 cet / 06.00 jst), the same time as the original reykjavík show all those years ago.

missed it, but it's going to be in the box set anyway

I'm liking this Circe thing a lot more than anything that's come out from them since 2008.

Circe = Sígur Rós members Georg Holm, Orri Páll Dýrason & Kjartan Holm with Hilmar örn Hilmarsson, instrumental soundtrack for an upcoming (2016?) BBC documentary film about vaudeville, circus acts etc with loads of old footage

docu will be called "The Show Of Shows" btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFfyt6Hdmnk.

Weird. Bought it having played that ... but now it is doing absolutely nothing for me.

I finally got around to buying Kveikur. It's got some good songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU3TYFSNybg

http://www.dooloop.tv/iframe/embed/?vid=4323187&as=0&ivw=specials/extern_as&

^^ 24 hour slow TV thing.

^ Curious new video.

3 nights in LA with an orchestra etc, April 2017

http://www.laphil.com/tickets/reykjavik-festival

I still like some of the early stuff but I still cant believe how badly the third album drops in the last three tracks. How unvarying the vocals are in them, it sounds like slight variations of the same sounds. Keep hearing "You sigh alone, you sign on a lot, you siphon a load".

tbf those lyrics would be an awesome encapsulation of millennial anomie

Definitely sums up my issues with () quite well!! Felt very lazy

Disagree.

The words were never meant to be anything other than another instrument on that album.

Far and away their best work.

I knew the vocals were not proper words, the problem is those last three tracks and much of Takk isn't creative enough with the vocals to carry off this approach.

Less like Liz Fraser and Magma and more like When Dinosurs Ruled The Earth ("akita!") and Team America ("durka durka"). Although Fraser and Magma used made up words rather than sounds, or maybe a mixture?

This isn't a problem in the earlier Sigur Ros stuff, so it's more frustrating.

first album and eps all great. lost interest after that

First album is seriously great. Remember I was in a stage production of Little shop of Horrors and hearing that album was deeply therapeutic. Untitled was also good, but christ after that I fell off pretty deep.

Once a band becomes a peak and valleys catharsis and reprieve formula, it's time to jet. They were pretty amazing live in the early days

So, wait, when you guys are saying "first album", are you referring to Von? Because that's a pretty brave statement, considering how dull most of that record is.

And I will still ride pretty hard for Kveikur, and especially Valtari.