Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do - Sigur Rós

Track list:

1. Ba Ba
2. Ti Ki
3. Di Do

Running time: 20 minutes
Released: 2004

Happy New Year and all that.

We loop back to Sigur Rós for the 4th time for what is, after Von, probably the work of theirs that I am least familiar with. I want to say this is an oddity that I have never really listened to but that is not 100% true. Wikipedia has it down as composed for something else, which makes sense but rings no bells for me. I can hear the odd words of the album title in my head though so I have definitely listened to it before. It is a relatively short and simple start to B though so here goes...

It starts plinking away quietly, a fairly neat little repeating pattern that grows stronger whilst stars fall around it until eventually some more instrumentation is added and I get that uncanny sensation of familiarity... has this been used in popular media and if so what? My Google-fu is too weak to work out if so. Perhaps it is just prior random plays that my memory is bringing back now that I hear the tune. It still leaves me unsettled a touch though. The track itself is enigmatic; nice, but not engaging; interesting but dull in different ways. It is not a composition that would sell me on Sigur Rós, but it is one that knowing their material, I can enjoy. The tracks run together (in so far as that can be said for anything as sparse as this), but Ti Ki takes on a more childlike feel than Ba Ba as there is no central theme or melody. It is much more "play with chimes and clicks" - so much so that when stronger notes appear in the second half of the track I am taken aback. They stop as suddenly as they arrive though, leaving an eerie space behind them. Then they return and a theme is finally born. The clicks and chimes are really wearing on me by now, but the theme is nice; the reverb/echo on it makes it sound like it happens in a big empty space and that is an effective atmospheric. I cannot say I like the piece much though.

Di Do includes the "vocal" - the album name repeated in fractured fashion, with some recording artefacts by the sound of it - over the same starfall chimes that have been a constant through this mini-album, there is a bit more drive underneath this one, a shaky percussive effect introducing drive before the theme arrives, and the blurring of the vocal loops builds an oppressive feel. The chimes disappear before I notice them being gone, replaced by louder "bongs" - like clock bells. The distorted electronics are unpleasant. Oh my, this is awful and damn close to unlistenable. Its a shame, because before that distortion took over there was a more rounded piece waiting to take shape.

Sigur Rós or no, I cannot see any merit in keeping Ti Ki and Di Do. Ba Ba is nice enough once it gets going but the other two feel like something far removed, for different reasons.