BA BA TI KI DI DO

This is an extremely interesting and mysterious single, with one of the more puzzling stories to its existence. Ballet choreographer Merce Cunningham (who's cut-up voice samples are the only spoken words on the single) requested that Sigur Rós and Radiohead write a 20min song to accompany his dance piece. The music, written independently of the dance, was put together with various sound samples and on the sole performing night the band was on hand with a keyboard, sound box, ballet shoes and electronic playback and a considerable penchant for improvisation. Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do is the ending result, both quite ambient in nature and flowing with the meticulous ease of their other recent works. The difficulties of having it complement yet remain unique within other songs in an album aren't there and so this can easily grow on you and become a stand alone piece. Although it is somewhat more minimalistic in terms of instrumental output, the build ups and climatic points still exist as with Ágætis Byrjun and ( ), in this case the slow turning of the music box and scuffle of ballet shoes can break away into an echoing keyboard on Ba Ba or electronic playback/distortion on Di Do. I don't consider the minimalistic result as a bad thing, on contrary, it's a less intrusive sound and extremely rewarding to let it grow on you. I'd recommend it as an interesting artistic offshoot from Ágætis Byrjun and ( ).