Takk, their major label debut, comes across almost as conventional. There are proper songs! With names, and lyrics – conveyed in Icelandic yet recognizably of this universe. Have Sigur Ros gone normal on us?
"AURORA BOREALIS/The icy sky at night."
Neil Young's opening lines from Pocahontas could've been written to evoke the first international release by Icelandic quartet Sigur Ros.
Blown away by Low in Christchurch Cathedral? Check out this year's Galway Arts Festival, where Sigur Ros (among several very exciting but unconfirmed others) will be playing St Nicholas' Church. Read on for details
Glacial slo-core guitar-bowers Sigur Ros cancel Galway Arts Festival appearance... in order to finish new album (!) in time for autumn release. Fair enough so
This may be their first foray onto a major label, but Babatikidido is still a typically unconventional project.. As the soundtrack to avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham’s 50th Gala Performance, this three-track instrumental wonder is appropriately fluid and dramatic.
Friday at Electric Picnic saw Sigur Ros pull off a spellbinding main stage performance, Christy Moore lift the mood of all, and many comings and goings at the Hot Press Chatroom.
A beautiful slice of Sigur Ros/Mum-inspired electronica from Dubliner Rod Morris. Supremely musical, this combines gentle loungey keys, wistful strings and a sublime vocal to produce a moment of Donal Dineen-endorsed magic.
Scandinavian alterna queen Stina Nordenstam is determined to keep the hype to a minimum and let her music do the talking – and so far the plan is paying off in spades.
Cornershop, Sigur Ros, The Dirty Three, David Kitt, The Frames, Lambchop? Yep, the dreamy bill above, and much more besides, is in store at this year's Galway Arts Festival
Adored by fans of similarly inclined outfits such as Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Lift To Experience and Sigur Ros, this Austin, Texas four-piece return with their first long-player in four years.
Fans disappointed at Sigur Ros's recent omission of Ireland on their recent tour will no doubt be pleased to learn that they're coming back over to make amends.
From 15-28 July 2002 Galway city hosts one of the most comprehensive of this year's arts festivals with esoteric offerings from the genres of visual art, music, theatre, comedy and lots, lots more
The Sex Pistols are back! In what has the look of a major coup for the event, punk’s great trailblazers are among this year’s headliners at Electric Picnic 2008, which takes place in Stradbally over the final weekend in August.
While the line-up may not be as strong as it has in previous years, the fact that the schedule isn’t crammed with must-sees means we have more capacity to take in everything else on offer.
The first batch of acts have been confirmed for T In The Park, Oxegen’s sister festival which takes place over the same weekend, July 8 and 9, in Scotland.
They may be one twin sister down, otherwise things remain stubbornly unchanged in camp Múm. Recorded largely in a deserted lightkeeper’s house, Summer Make Good boasts appropriate titles such as ‘Hu Hviss – A Ship’, ‘Abandoned Ship Bells’and ‘Oh How The Boat Drifts’, and the overall effect is a tender, intimate exploration of heavenly, frosted soundscapes.
Sigur Rss are the latest highly-rated Icelandic export. They talk to PETER MURPHY about ambition, inventing their own language and the showband circuit
Personally speaking, the death of the wonderful Elliott Smith was a major blow his year. I found out about his suicide through Ollie Cole, who had e-mailed me with a very succinct, “Elliott Smith is dead. He was my king”, on the day of his death.
Cinematic weirditude! arbus-like photography! theoretical physics! as Paul Nolan discovers, it’s definitely not only rock’n’roll for Hope Of The States, the Chichester band with a certain Westmeath connection.
Cinematic weirditude! arbus-like photography! theoretical physics! as Paul Nolan discovers, it’s definitely not only rock’n’roll for Hope Of The States, the Chichester band with a certain Westmeath connection.
Holy high expectations, Batman. Here are some of the phrases being thrown around about Chichester five-piece Hope Of The States. “Like Godspeed You! Black Emperor” (gorgeous, instrumental-based, violin-led apocalypse-rockers),.“Like…Trail of Dead” (gorgeous, song-based, guitar-led, er, apocalypse-rockers). And, not least: “First credible possible heirs to Radiohead”. Arooga!
There's tragic news from Bath where Hope Of The States guitarist, James Lawrence, was found dead at 4.30 this morning in Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.
Given the chilly atmospheres which adorn his songwriting, it comes as no surprise to learn that Adrian Crowley composes it in his sleep. Thankfully, though, Niall Crumlish found him to be a thoroughly lucid and compelling interviewee.
Neil Hannon plays the Galway Arts Festival - and retains The Divine Comedy name in order to stay in touch with his inner secondary school debating society
There was no getting hammered and doing fuck all work over Christmas for Damien Rice with the Kildare man journeying to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.
With Michael Eavis letting the grass grow at Glastonbury this year, Scandinavia’s long-running equivalent was bound to be a huge draw for international music fans. Those seeking a people-friendly atmosphere and a musically-varied experience were always likely to flock to Roskilde, a festival structured along similar lines to its English counterpart
It's nothing less than a joyous coincidence that Sufjan Stevens’ infinite ambition and incredible work ethic are easily matched by his talent. It now transpires that his 2005 masterpiece Illinoise - finally clocking in at a hefty 75 minutes - started life as a double set and was eventually whittled down to a 22-song album.
Fresh from picking up an Ivor Novello award with Gary Lightbody and co., ex-Patrol man Iain Archer is hoping for similar good fortune with the re-release of his 2004 effort Flood The Tanks.
Though a charity gig hardly makes for the perfect barometer, it is still perpetually astounding to note the evolution (or devolution?) of Damien Rice’s live audiences.
Its industrial swamp rock production is also largely unrepresentative of the rest of the album, but Mütter is full of meticulous attention to sonic detail.
Eighties influences are clearly on show and it would be in the newly-regrouped Spandau Ballet’s interests to investigate Friendly Fires’ far superior breed of new wave synth-pop.
Sharp suits, a global fan base, his own luxury recording studio - David Gray has certainly come a long way. On the eve of the release of his latest album, he talks about the dark side of success and explains why he wants to leave the singer-songwriter tag behind
A fresh generation of bands is tearing up the rule book and redefining what it means to be Irish. To celebrate this new wave of talent, we catch up with the best of them.
It's been over four intriguing years since Damien Rice's extraordinary debut album O was launched. That record went on to become a huge underground international hit, selling in excess of 2 million copies. Now his long-awaited follow-up – the similarly simply titled 9 – is finally ready to hit the shops. So how did Rice so successfully capture the collective imagination? And will the latest instalment in the Rice musical biography propel him to even greater heights? Hot Press talks exclusively to some of the key players in his remarkable rise and rise.
Champagne corks were popped last week as Snow Patrol joined that elite group of bands who’ve simultaneously topped the charts in Ireland and the UK. It’s all a far cry from the days when their fame was confined to the University of Dundee Students Union bar. Gary Lightbody takes time out from wowing the masses in Dublin and Belfast to tell Stuart Clark about their twisty and turny route to the top.
With a self-recorded and self-released album – called simply O – Damien Rice has emerged as a major force in Irish music. But that’s just the start of it: the record is now in the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K., and with the kind of momentum he has generated, the feeling is that it might just go all the way.
To coincide with the release of the Today FM DJ’s double-CD compilation tracking the history of alternative rock in Ireland, Tom Dunne talks to Jackie Hayden about the state of Irish music, singer-songwriters versus guitar bands and the role of Irish radio.
Our annual HP-7 summit brings together some of the pre-eminent movers and shakers in irish music to reflect on everything from backstage catering to the end of war, pestilence and famine. Your host: Stuart Clark.
Ten, nine, eight… we count down the contenders for 2003. Words Hannah Hamilton, Colin Carberry, Niall Stokes, Richard Brophy, John Walshe, Eamon Sweeney and Stuart Clark
The Manson Family at work, rest and play, in sickness and in health. Peter Murphy travels to britain and the US to bring back the full, intimate story of a band on the run
Viewed in widescreen, Goodbye To The Electric Penguins is a triumph of sound over songcraft. The ensemble’s debut album is, as you might expect, an inventive and accomplished adventure in not-so-modern recording.
The first day of The Music Show saw some hot debates, great music and Glen Hansard in stirring form.
Reporting: Peter Murphy, Celina Murphy, Niall Stokes, Stuart Clark and additional Hot Press reporters
