Sigur Ros

This week had been hell of a week for me, as I tried to finish my paper. Topics for essays are getting increasingly hard, and it is now so much harder to impress and score - hence I need to put even more effort to impress my professors enough for them to give me a, well, pleasant grade. As you may realize that had been NO update at all this week, the update will come soon, trust me.

I have been watching quite a lot of music videos lately via iTunes. Other than the fact that I do enjoy watching music videos, I am actually looking for new artistes to buy. Yes, nothing excites me more than to discover a new genre or a new artiste that I may have missed. The awesome thing is, that I watched this video called "Hide and Seek" by the UK band Imogne Heap. This song was the exact same song used in the climatic season finale of The O.C Season 2. Imogen Heap had belongs to a rather new (and odd) genre known as Electronic. I cannot exactly tell you what does Electronic sounds like, but as the name suggests, it combines traditional music to merciless electronic manipulations.

The result? A fascinating blend of music that is haunting, strange, uncomfortable, and yet, beautiful and melancholic. All at the same time. The beauty of the genre and of the song emerges once you get the "inner" tune in which the entire song builds itself around. No, it's not like Bjork, it in fact is an easier listen compared to Bjork's abstract vision.

Of course, I couldn't find the band after making a trip down to HMV.... Yeah, I'm consumed with disgust, but not all's lost as I found a NEW band - Sigur Ros.

Sigur Ros (pronounced si-ur ROSE) is an Icelandic band based in the UK, and I must say I have never heard anything like their music. They are classified under Rock, but there is something unearthly about their music, strange movements from piano to a sudden surge of strong voices mixed with the powerful strum of guitar. No this is not Electronic either. As Sigur Ros says, they want to share the music complexity of Icelandic music with the world, and yes, they sing in Icelandic. The good thing is however, they offer Icelandic-English translations on their website, and even a factual page on how to speak Icelandic. You should check it out here:

http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/

Plus, of course FREE downloads of some of their most complex work; it is a great introduction to their work, though you really ought to star buying a copy or two of their albums. They do sound a lot like New Age, but they insist that they're Icelandic Rockers. Oh well, the debate of genres will never end.....