Artist: Sigur Rós
Label: Self-released
Released: 2013
Length: 17:11
Rating: 5/5
Sigur Rós are probably the best contemporary example of a band that, through a totally unique and uncompromising stance, becomes (relatively, conditionally) popular even though its music defies every popular current, including those on the so-called alternative scene. They’re also a band that morphs into something new and different with every release, and usually something even bolder than before. In that sense they definitely come close to the attitude and progress of Radiohead, who keep doing their own thing without flirting with popular trends, and yet every one of their artistically distinctive and, above all, daring new creations gets a fantastic reception. Sigur Rós have pulled off exactly that. They’ve reached the level where every new release is a new challenge, where more records mean more daring, and where there’s no reason left to look back, because their talent won’t let them. So after their most ambient release to date, the album Valtari (you can read the RockLine review of the album HERE), they’ve already put out something new – an EP titled Brennistein EP.
The Icelanders’ new EP mainly announces two things – first, the band’s new album Kveikur, coming out in June, and second, that the departure of one of their key members, if not the most important one right after Jónsi, multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson, doesn’t show at all. What’s more, Breinnsteinn is perhaps the most interesting, daring and, above all, heaviest thing the band has released so far. Putting out new material so fast after Valtari might even be deliberate – precisely because of Kjartan’s departure. But that doesn’t mean it’s rushed. The new songs Sigur Rós played on tour, which supposedly came out of the post-Kjartan period (he was reportedly the only trained musician in the band and the most gifted composer), are already fantastic and rank among the most inspired work Sigur Rós have done. The new EP just makes it all official.
Still, Brennistein EP is far from just a teaser for a new record and a message to fans that the band is stronger than ever – all three tracks stand completely on their own, each in its own way. The first one, the title track, which will also open the band’s new album, is definitely the main act of the EP. It’s an extremely explosive piece, full of experimental patterns that Sigur Rós have never tackled this way before. Heavy basses, electronic tampering with the beat mixed with classical string instruments reaching down to lower frequencies, Jónsi’s singing contradicting the instrumental rhythm yet fitting in the harmony itself… and yet that rich compositional breadth everyone expects from Sigur Rós is still there. The quiet-loud-quiet formula, done in a way only they can do it, with probably one of the most polished walls of sound in the post-rock genre, where so many instruments, so many musical stories, so many sonic images get mixed together. The peak is of course the »loud« part, where with any other band such a rich wall of sound would be unrecognizable, simply impenetrable, but with Sigur Rós, despite its abstraction, it stays so coherent and decipherable that all we can do is tip our hats to the band. There’s no need to waste words on performing these songs live – that’s where they truly come alive (you can read the RockLine report from the Sigur Rós concert in Jesolo, Italy, on the current tour HERE).
The second part of the EP consists of two tracks that are the complete opposite of the title song. These are two purely atmospheric pieces, but far from the ones that ended up on Valtari. The sounds are much more abstract, the ambient more basic (again a mix of electronic atmosphere and strings), with no recognizable common thread and without Jónsi’s vocals too. But the biggest difference between the tracks on Valtari and these new ones is the mood. Valtari is graced with a gorgeous melancholic sound that’s still full of some kind of positive beauty, and you can feel in it that language of hope, as Jónsi named his made-up language. »Hryggjarsúla« and »Ofbirta«, though, are tracks of darkness, tracks of anger, even tracks of aggression, just like Brennisteinn. In fact, that’s exactly this new face of Sigur Rós – a kind of anger that wasn’t there before, a kind of aggressive maturity that may be finding its way out of a former positive naivety (which, in terms of quality and concept, was of course perfectly fine, and the label is by no means meant negatively).
On top of everything in terms of content, the EP also reinforces one big shift for the band that I secretly really wanted. Production-wise, this is probably the most polished thing Sigur Rós have ever done. It may even be the band’s first studio release to capture their live energy this well. That was what was missed most before, that live energy, that open sound that was somehow passive on the albums – and on Breinnsteinn EP the band manages exactly that. The dynamics come to the fore in a way that was almost unthinkable before, the way we always looked for at concerts.
So is this a new path for Sigur Rós? Not a language of hope, but some kind of language of holy rage? Of course, that signature Sigur Rós melancholy is still very much present on Brennisteinn EP, but you can feel a shift in emotion, a shift in attitude, a new feeling the band may not have expressed before; in any case, this is one of the best works of the band’s career. And if angry Sigur Rós really are what’s ahead of us, the new album will probably give the answer.
Line-up
Jónsi Birgission – vocals, guitars, keyboards
Georg Hólm – bass guitar
Orri Páll Dýrason – drums
Production
Sigur Rós
Track list
1. Brennisteinn
2. Hryggjarsúla
3. Ofbirta
