Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun

Orri Páll Dýrason has always been my favorite example of reserved, temperate drumming, where your patience and time are more of an asset than technical ability. He has so many great moments on every Sigur Ros album (the giant, long winded tom build at the end of (), the brushwork on Takk, and his most percussive example, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust) but this is where it all really happened for the first time. Their first album had some great ideas but they didn't seem to know where they were going with them. Agaetis Byrjun was where they learned to behave and play more as a unit. Dyrason keeps his playing suttle with slight outbursts, but he maintains a tame and tasteful touch through most of the album. The drums seem so pent up that once they finally come full force into the songs it's perfect.

To play at tempos this slow and drawn out takes a mind more relaxed than my own. Maybe I have just seen so many drummers over-play their parts (and I have over-played enough on my own) that I gain a respect for those that know just what to do at just the right moment, and can hold off their playing for the greater good.

This album is a reminder that it's OK to leave some space in your playing, as long as the other musicians you're with know how to fill it.

NOTE : It was brought to my attention shortly after this post that Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson is the drummer that played on this particular album, not Orri Páll Dýrason. If I would have taken the time to read the wikipedia pages I link to, I would have seen this. But I didn't read them, I'm lazy. Instead of me going through and rewriting this like I should, I am going to just leave all the nice things I said about Orri's playing, and tell you to apply everything I said about this album to Gunnarson.

Sorry.


Audio/Visual Evidence : Olsen Olsen, Agaetis Byrjun, Svefn-g-Englar