Ágætis byrjun - a good beginning

"Before Ágætis, post-rock was a niche concern, a tiny sub-sub-genre centered around a dozen or so bands in England and North America-Stereolab, Bark Psychosis and a few others in London; Tortoise and Gastr del Sol in Chicago; Godspeed You! Black Emperor in Montreal. After Ágætis, the sound-massive, surging, triumphal; melancholic and soothing and mostly major-key; wreathed in strings and horns and ripe with melodrama and headlocking you into transcendence-is a global phenomenon. They opened for Radiohead; they turned down a slot on "Letterman" because the host wouldn't give them enough time. They even appeared on "The Simpsons." Twenty years into their career, they tour arenas and command a massive following. They are a cultural institution ... Parsing the re-release, I was drawn back to the album itself again. It doesn't really require elaboration, or added context. It's entire appeal lay in the sense that it dropped, immaculate and mysterious, from the sky".

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