You might imagine our office as a European wonderland, with espresso machines and turtlenecks and sophisticated furniture. As a street paper, we keep our overhead low. So during the week, many of us have massive headphones on, blaring our music of choice.
As a service to us and to our readers, then, we are sharing what Icelandic music is being played in the office this week. (Mostly through headphones.)
We had a late night at the Grapevine Music Awards, with live performances by BKPM and Knackered. This week, I’ve been listening to the nominees who didn’t win. I can’t find a dud. Visually, I keep coming back to Kári Egils video “Midnight Sky” directed by Didda Flygenring.
I had flinched at the initial cuteness of the imagery, but the whole composition stands the test of time well. Kári has separately been doing some inventive live shows as well. He stunned at Airwaves, he just performed a successful show at Iðnó, and he’s done well performing on local TV, like his set on Víkan. It’s been a pleasure revisiting this stuff. BC
I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, daydreaming about summer festivals and park picnics. This may or may not have resulted in me relistening to Crystal Castles’ entire discography (a couple of times). They were the band around the time I was finishing high school, and them cancelling a show in my hometown one summer felt like the end of the world. At some point, instead of Alice Glass, I heard a familiar voice and genuinely thought I’d gone mad or that my laptop was glitching. I was like: I know this song, and this is not Crystal Castles… or is it? Turns out, Crystal Castles sampled Sigur Rós’ “Inní mér syngur vitleysingur” on “Year of Silence” from their 2010 Crystal Castles (II). As unexpected as this crossover episode was, the two go together incredibly well. On another note, I’ve also been listening a lot to Ari Árelíus’ new album Hulin Hönd, which you can read about here. Ari wears multiple hats in the industry and clearly cares deeply about his music. I’d always thought of his work as pure good vibes, but this record adds a new philosophical layer. And honestly, I can’t help but agree with the idea running through it: that so much of our lives is guided by something other than free will (e.g. like having to show up to the office after a party). IZ
Admittedly, I spent this week with Alaska1867’s mixtape 222 and digital ísland’s song “eh plan?” on a nonstop loop while I’ve been finishing the cover feature on them for the Grapevine Music Awards. Now that the paper’s out and being distributed around the country as I type, I’ve switched to the beautiful “Ég hef reynt (mitt besta)” (“I have tried (my best)”) by Einakróna. Released today, Einakróna’s poetic and pleading vocals make the song striking from the start — and then she’s joined by a fourteen-member choir. Alongside swelling instrumentals, this song is truly immersive. “Ég hef rent (mitt besta)” only makes me more excited for the full album, Rembihnútar (Tight knot), which will be out on February 20. ISH
For the last two weeks, I have been impulsively listening to mainly two songs by the one and only Stuðmenn. A supergroup of talented people, creatively but also business-wise. Under the name Strax, they were one of the first bands to tour China after they lifted their iron curtain for Western influence.
But the songs I have been listening to are “Hringur og Bítlagæslumennirnir,” which grooves so good and vibes incredibly well — and talking about their great vision business-wise is when they brought Ringo Starr to Iceland to perform with them at Verslunarmannahelgi 1984. It was done to attract more people to their Atlavík festival instead of the disastrous Viðeyjarhátíð.
The lyrics for this song sparkles of joy, describing a phone call to Ringo, and has these genius details which would translate to something like: “He sang about the yellow submarine, with a little help from his friends.”
The other song from them that I have been listening to is “Landbúnaðar Lísa,” an agriculture pop song that is incredibly well-balanced and has these goosebump vocals. Incredible song and a joyful listen. ÖEA
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