For A Minor Reflection – Heading Towards Chaos

For about fifteen minutes, For A Minor Reflection are the best instrumental post-rock band to reach these ears in years. Obviously for some, this will sound like faint praise – the relative lack of variation in the genre can make it feel like a style long peaked, but for those partial to a bit of evocative bluster, bombastic opener Kostljos and the palette cleansing Fjara are real treats.

Yet such early enthusiasm soon resides – while masters of the genre’s craft, balancing light and shade, loud and quiet, both the storm and its eye – the Icelandic quartet follow the rule-book so closely there’s little room to challenge or surprise. In the end, they’re closer to the soaring populism of Coldplay than the shiver-inducing likes of Explosions in the Sky, and as such ‘only’ deserve the epithet Mjög Góður (that’s ‘Very Good’ if your Icelandic is rusty). [Chris Buckle]