Eccentricity, creativity and raw talent all mixed together sometimes reveal pure artistic brilliance that is immediately addictive. If you haven’t heard Sin Fang Bous yet, now’s the time. Sin Fang Bous is the moniker of the young musician Sindri Mar Sigfusson from Reykjavik, Iceland.
Whatever the case, his debut album Clangour is a brilliant treasure chest full of musical treats, and thus far, one of the best indie releases of 2009, yet the album has not received the attention you would expect.
Maybe Sigfusson should join the growing Animal Collective family? Well, maybe not; he’s doing well on his own as evidenced on Clangour. The music is rich with textures of ‘noise’ synth pop layered with choruses, orchestrated embellishments, lo fi and hi fi weaves, sunny and watery sound effects found on songs like “Lies” and “The Jubilee Choruses”.
Other tracks like “Poi Rot” suggest an intrinsic gift to create lush ballads with gorgeous vocals, interspersed with whistling and string plucking similar to Andrew Bird’s signature sound. Yet other songs like “Fa Fa Fa” mix lo fi with rock elements and acoustic guitar before reaching a climax of “oh oh ohs” that soar higher with each note.
One of things that is magnificent about Sigfusson’s musical abilities is his penchant for creating songs that stand on their own, and with the exception of some commonalities, are individualistic in style, delivery and content. An example of this is the song “We Belong” full of xylophones, echoed vocals, driving beats and electronica pop influences. Another good example is the noise pop track “Melt Down The Knives”, one of the album’s standout songs.
Sigfusson is not a newbie to the indie music world. In fact, his previous band, Seabear, established themselves as a buzz band with their magnificent debut The Ghost That Carried Us Away in 2007. As of today, Seabear’s MySpace page has over one million views – that’s no small accomplishment.
By comparison, popular singer-songwriter M. Ward has 700,000 more views but has had his MySpace account twice as long as Seabear. Sin Fang Bous MySpace page, opened in January of 2008, has had slightly over 107,000 views.
Read more and listen to songs.
The following YouTube video of the song “I Sing I Swim” has been viewed nearly a quarter of a million times and has 4.5 stars. So, clearly, Seabear is not unknown in the indie music world.
After parting ways with Seabear, Sigfusson cut out on his own to develop his musical career on his own terms. What came of that brief time with a full band was the seeds for his new solo release under the unusual moniker Sin Fang Bous. It’s hard for me to see this album not being in my personal list of the best indie albums of 2009 at the end of the year.
“Melt Down The Knives” – Sin Fang Bous from Clangour (released in Feb. 2009)
“Poi Rot” – Sin Fang Bous from Clangour
“Nothings” – Sin Fang Bous from Morr Music compilation Not Given Lightly: A Tribute To The Giant Golden Book Of New Zealand’s Alternative Music Scene (out May 25)
“I Sing I Swim” – Seabear from The Ghost That Carried Us Away
Sin Fang Bous on LastFM
Sin Fang Bous on MySpace