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I happened upon this DVD at the Mediatheque (the old habits!) and it's led me back to ( ) - playing as I type - and on into their entire catalogue.
I'd always imagined them to be a group of blond Icelandic longhairs (wot cultural stereotype?) - sort of Reykjavik's answer to Yes. Jonsi hits the kind of searing high notes that Jon Anderson sustained on Relayer.
How wrong could I be?
In fact they're a long way from Prog rock celebs. What's lovely about the first disc of the 2-DVD set is the low-key makeshift nature of their music: improvising on slates, setting up on a mountainside, or playing in what looks to be a school assembly room. Accurate or not, the overriding impression is of a group with a close fan base - wives, girlfriends, extended family, friends they went to school with. There's no rioting, no gobbing, no chucking fireworks on stage. In such a climate few would tear off their tops - chunky fisherman's sweaters are the preferred choice. (Jonsi seems to like a cap with earflaps. I don't blame him).
The DVD intercuts footage of the band with pans of the Icelandic landscape: sea, mountains, streams running through ferns. You get the impression that the usual tantrums and narcissism of the Music Biz would be given short shrift in such a context.
Little people. Big old world.
And let's not make a pun on rock music.
Have a listen, anyway.
1 comment:
Jonathan,
I have this on a film queue to watch sometime, probably because I'm obsessed with Sigur Rós, sometimes listening to them exclusively for days.
A friend of mine, an Icelandic poet whose English is frighteningly perfect, has one strange problem with them, though something I cannot perceive. He thinks they are too nationalistic, something poets often are not. "Heima," of course, mean "home."
I've been a man of desultoriness recently. Apologies. Much going on. Recently trapped in Chicago (a good place to be trapped) by Hurricane Irene's presence on the east coast, and now I'm dealing with disasters in local governments across the state. But still here.
Thanks for the reminder. About this music.
Geof
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