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Track By Track: ‘BIPOLAR’ By Ragga Holm
Ragga Holm might be best known from Reykjavíkurdætur, but her newly-released ‘BIPOLAR’ shows she can easily stand on her own two feet. The album, inspired by Ragga’s experiences with bipolar disorder, is a melange of pop, hip-hop and electro. We sat down…
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Hip, Hip, Húrra: NYE with Jon Hopkins and Kiasmos
British electronic superstar Jon Hopkins teamed up with Iceland’s most prominent DJ duo Kiasmos to throw a sold-out party at Húrra on New Year’s Eve. Jon Hopkins has been rising to fame amongst the electro-intelligentsia from his beginnings as a keyboardist for…
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Albums Of The Year: Our Critics’ Music Picks Of 2018
Deliberating over the Grapevine’s Music Awards is a difficult process—for every winner that we hand a medal to, there are countless others who were also jockeying for position and did great things well deserving of your attention. With that in mind, we…
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Grapevine Playlist: Hermigervill, sillus, HATARI, Psychoplasmics, ZAKAZ & More
A lot of great music sneaked out over the Christmas period, whilst your eye was off the ball, and on the egg nog. If anyone actually drinks that stuff. We don’t really know. We mostly see it in movies. Hermigervill – II…
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Bondage-Synth-Punk Trio Hatari Announce Final Gig After Failing To Dismantle Capitalism
Hatari released a statement to the media today concerning the recent announcement of their last ever concert, to be held on December 28th at Húrra. The letter—roughly translated below—says that the band’s raison d’être—fomenting the downfall of capitalism—has failed, and that “the…
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Randall Dunn’s ‘Beloved’ Dissolves Musical Structure; IÐNÓ Show Next Week
The NYC record label figureight has released a stream excellent albums since its formation in 2017—not least, by Icelandic artists JFDR, GYÐA, Indriði and Úlfur. The label also has several international artists on the roster, including Randall Dunn; a producer and serial…
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The Final Six: Winners Of Kraumur Music Awards 2018 Announced
The Kraumur Music Awards have announced the final winners from their impressively diverse 2018 longlist. The six winning releases this year are: Auður – Afsakanir Bagdad Brothers – JÆJA. Elli Grill – Pottþétt Elli Grill GDRN – Hvað ef Kælan mikla –…
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Fifteenth Time Lucky: Björk’s Incredible Grammy Awards Journey
The news came out yesterday that Björk has been nominated for the Grammys for her new album, ‘Utopia,’ in the Alternative Albums category. Whilst this in itself might not seem that surprising—she’s a major international artist, after all—there’s one aspect of it…
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Electric Dreams: Genre-Free Living & DJ/VJ Katerina’s Search For The New & Weird
“I’m constantly in search of something new, hyper-real and weird,” says Katerina Blahutova—nicknamed Katla—a multidisciplinary designer and DJ/VJ from Prague that currently resides in Reykjavík. “I consider this a sort of life attitude of mine.” Listen up In the past year, Katla…
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Track By Track: ‘Love, Lust, and Greed’ By Great Grief
Great Grief has been playing worldwide for five years, so calling their newly released debut album, ‘Love, Lust, and Greed,’ long-awaited would be an understatement. Singer Finnbogi Örn walks us through the new album, track by track. Fluoxetine (Burden Me) This song…
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Quality, Ambition, Originality: Kraumur Music Awards Unveil Diverse Longlist
As the year draws to a close, music journalists, bloggers and critics are starting to draw up their end-of-year-lists of their favourite albums in the preceding 12 months. The annual Kraumur Awards, now in its 11th year, is traditionally one of the…
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Love, Drugs, Escapism: The Mysterious Cult Of kef LAVÍK
Kef LAVÍK are an unusual band in more ways than one. They’d released three albums—‘Kuldinn er Fínn,’ ‘Lifum Alltaf,’ and ‘Vesæl í Kuldanum’—before they even played their first gig, opening for Vaginaboys in front of 400 people at Harpa in 2016. An…
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Secretly Satanic: SMIT Records Explores The Frontiers Of Experimental Music
“It’s about infecting people with satanic music,” says Héðinn Finnsson, in a quiet, deadpan voice, with a neat grid of monochrome 7” records on the table in front of him. An almost inaudibly shy presence, he’s explaining the name of SMIT Records,…
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Music News: Jónsi Triple Album! Vök’s World Domination! Kiasmos NYE Blowout! More!
Oh lord! It’s all going off in the Icelandic music scene. Here’s a summary of what’s new. Jónsi has released a triple-album of experimental material collected under his Frakkur solo moniker. After a limited vinyl pressing sold out at last year’s Norður…
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Grapevine Playlist: Post-Airwaves Music Flood Edition—Great New Stuff Galore
Much like the collapse of a Greenlandic ice shelf being caught on camera by an amateur photographer making a time-lapse, Airwaves 2018 precipitated a disorientating landslide of new releases. However, rather than being a chilling reminder of the inevitability of global warming,…
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Track By Track: ‘Night Music’ By PORT
Above all else, PORT seeks to dive deep into alienation and escapism. Their first EP, ‘Night Music,’ came out in September and proved without a shadow of a doubt that these boys—veterans of the Reykjavík metal scene—can serve up contemplative ambient music…
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Grapevine Playlist: Wood/Work, Commander, Svartidauði, Sólveig Matthildur, Hugar & More!
Very much like a torrent of aurora glimpsed through the clouds, rippling the surface of our planet’s atmosphere like a pebble dropping into a puddle, here are the latest majestic plumes to erupt from the wonderous geysir we call the Icelandic music…
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Electric Dreams: Welcome To KRÍA’s Ice Pop
KRÍA is an Icelandic singer-songwriter-producer who has been exceptionally busy for the past three years, while managing to maintain a low profile … until now.. Lately she has been playing both local and international gigs on a regular basis, gaining a reputation…
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A Fresh Frequency: Útvarp 101 Is Changing The Game In Icelandic Radio
They say that video killed the radio star, but a group of young Reykjavík musicians, artists and tastemakers are determined to prove that statement untrue. On October 29th, the bunch took the cultural landscape of Iceland by storm with the reveal of…
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The Cold Front: Kælan Mikla Have Grown Up And Blown Up
Five years ago, Kælan Mikla were playing twenty minute sets of furious poetry-punk in the attic at Dillon. Five months ago, they were jetting off to London to open for Placebo, at the request of iconic Cure frontman Robert Smith. In the…
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Code Of Conduct: Daníel Bjarnason Releases ‘Collider,’ Talks Conducting
“It’s a terribly strange job, to be honest,” Daníel Bjarnason finally says, after a long pause. He is staring straight ahead, brow furrowed, in deep contemplation. “I don’t think people understand conductors very well at all, especially in this country. I wish…
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Electric Dreams: Hlýnun Jarðar Looks Towards The Future
Tryggvi Þór Pálsson is a member of Reykjavík’s own very productive and skillful DJ crew Plútó, appearing under DJ moniker Hlýnun Jarðar (Global warming). He also dabbles in music production as Ceqi. Tryggvi’s DJ sets are bassy, full of mysterious dialogue samples…
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The Rise Of ROKKY: A New Star Arrives
Following the recent release of her debut single “My Lips,” Icelandic singer ROKKY took to the intimate attic stage of Dillon today, in the heart of Reykjavík, with a pop-up busking session. In the venue where she first started out, amidst the…