Sigur Rós - Inni

(Krunk)

Sigur Rós’s effortlessly epic post-rock feels over-exposed these days, seemingly soundtracking every nature documentary of the last decade, but stripped of that banal association it still wields enormous emotional power, as demonstrated on this uncompromising live album. Eschewing the strings, choirs, brass and acoustic experiments of their extraordinary Heima film of 2007, this is Sigur Rós distilled to their essence, four friends locked together at an almost psychic level, creating something bigger than themselves. The accompanying movie is monochrome, claustrophobic and freakily intimate but with or without visuals the music soars from the jaw-dropping opening bars of murky sleepwalk ‘Svefn-g-Englar’ to the white-heat meltdown of ‘Popplagid’. A record that reminds you why Sigur Rós were great in the first place.

Inni, the live film that accompanies the live album, will be showing at Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 24 Oct and Òran Mór, Glasgow, Tue 1 Nov.