As a sometime teacher of English as a Foreign Language, sometimes I have to go through the process of trying to explain a word or concept to someone who doesn’t speak English as their native tongue. However, if you had heard Sigur Ros, and knew someone who hadn’t; how would you go about it?

They come from Iceland, and can seriously be described as the most important act to come from there since Bjork and the Sugarcubes (yeah, I liked gus Gus too. BUT!) As for how they sound…NME once said shoegazing (‘dream pop’ in American English) but they only vaguely remind me of My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush et al. As for the ethereal, sonic cathedrals that were always used to describe those bands (overused terms in much the same way that ‘angular’ keeps being applied to The Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand and The Editors)…perhaps a bit ethereal. They sing in Icelandic and their own madeup language (I have to confess that I don’t speak either; but I am not blaming anyone else for this). It sounds lush, beautiful, like waking up on a summer morning (hey! If John Tavener can get away with writing ‘Flows like the tears of the mother of God’ as a music description then I, a humble blogger, am allowed to get away with that one).

Rather like with Low last week, much as it amazes me that there might possibly be people who haven’t heard Sigur Ros, just , courtesy of mp3s on Insound and their own website I present you four tracks from their essential 1999 album Agaetis Byrjun:

Sigur Ros – ‘Agaetis Byrjun.’ mp3
Sigur Ros -‘Fludufrelsarinn.’ mp3
Sigur Ros – ‘Staralfur.’ mp3
Sigur Ros -‘Olsen Olsen.’ mp3

Like what you heard? I thought you would! Go Buy Agaetis Byrjun