Sigur Rós new album Kveikur is out now via XL Recordings / Remote Control. The album is self-produced by the three members of Sigur Rós - Jón Þór Birgisson, Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason.
The first few seconds of Kveikur begin with what might be the sound of a powerful yet distant conflagration, low flying fighter jets on a bombing mission, or a handheld recording of a large collapsing building; before slamming in with a colossally distorted bass note that says: as much as the first 20 seconds have been unsettling, something ominous and potentially cataclysmic is now underway.
It’s as far from the life-affirming, positive tropes sometimes associated with Sigur Rós as it is possible to get, and evidence that the band as a three-piece are going through their most profound change since they swapped the nebulous clouds of debut Von for the career-making beauty of Agaetis Byrjun, a decade-and-a-half ago.
If you wanted to imagine what a Sigur Rós record without piano might sound like, Kveikur, the band’s seventh studio album, will provide unequivocal answers*. Kveikur is, throughout, defined by a darker, more dystopian mood than the band’s previous ventures, certainly than since the second side of 2002’s ( ). On more than one occasion – the opening ‘Brennisteinn’ and ‘Kveikur’ being the most overt examples – this sense of dread breaks out into thinly-veiled terror.
The band recently cameoed as themselves on The Simpsons and wrote their own version of The Simpsons' theme tune for episode 'The Saga of Carl', set in Sigur Rós' home country of Iceland. Listen to Sigur Ros Simpsons theme song here.
Taken from new album Kveikur: 'Brennisteinn'. Watch:
