Author: Ben H. Murray
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Like A Bat Into Hell…
Cancer Bats have been making music as dark as their name suggests—angry, post-punk, post-hardcore metal that just raises just an…
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UK PM Brown Incorrectly Boasts of IceSave “Rescue” at Pre-election Labour Conference
The annual UK political party conference merry-go-round culminated today with Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s keynote speech – seen by many…
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Iceland Discussed In Westminster
Whilst thousands protest in the centre of London in advance of the G20 summit, Iceland featured heavily in Wednesday’s Prime…
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A Chance To Restore Some Pride On An International Stage?
Scotland, Iceland’s opponents in this week’s round of international games, possess a rare thing – a 90% success rate in…
Europe Wakes Up To Crisis
At last, the rest of the world has been shaken awake from its slumber of indifference, although it has taken…
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Iceland Burns Whilst The Rest Of The World Sleeps
Vicariously experiencing the events unfolding in Reykjavik, whilst sat in a green and peaceful corner of England, is a bizarre…
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Great Scot! Biffy Clyro Invade Iceland
Biffy Clyro have had one hell of a year. After coming somewhere near the top of many album of the…
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Art and Ice – A Difficult Combination?
Pretty people, money and the weather – ask most people about Iceland and they’ll usually weave you a story around…
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Kira Kira
In recent years, the successful portions of the Icelandic post-rock scene have made a sound to call their own and…
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My Summer as a Salvation Soldier
The twelve songs on Activism, an album wracked with emotion and subtle diatribe, are arguably some of the best tracks…
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Marriage of Mystery
Country Wedding, a new film directed by BAFTA award-winning Icelander Valdís Óskarsdóttir, is set to be released later this summer,…
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Peter And Wolf
Peter And Wolf may not be well-known but their ambiguity (the album has been sitting on someone’s shelf for four…
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Boys In A Band
With production from Sigur Rós / Cocteau Twins album maestro Ken Thomas, you might expect Boys In A Band’s first…
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Atomstation
The Grapevine gets a ‘sleazy thanks’ in the sleeve but we’ll not be influenced by such blatant arse kissing. Actually,…
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Cortes
It was recently explained to me, when having dinner in a nice restaurant, that a ram’s testicle is best eaten…
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Middle East Music Fest
A Palestine benefit concert in Iceland – not an obvious event for a Thursday night at Organ, but who cares…
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Stórsveit Nix Noltes
Whilst Gogol Bordello seem to have the international monopoly on high-energy folk, using what might be described as a cynical…
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Tommygun Preachers
With a name like a spaghetti Western and songs such as ‘Drifter’ and ‘Hillbilly Purgatory’, you’d imagine the Tommygun Preachers…
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Getting Horny with the Cod
Fishing and fish in Iceland are as much a part of the culture, history and lifestyle as music, beer and…
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Sugar and Bass Make Singapore Sling Just Palatable
Drone-laden psych rock is a difficult beast to tame – too much noise and feedback and it sounds like an…
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Hraun
Hraun have taken a fair bit of stick from various corners of the Icelandic press. The issue most have with…
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Battle of the Lands
The once-popular battle of the bands competition has been on the wane for several years now, probably because of the…
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Folk and Frost
Despite having a capital city that sits a snowball’s throw away from the North Pole and boasts a population smaller…
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GusGus at Glastonbury
How do you explain an Icelandic dance band playing Glastonbury’s Jazz Stage? If you’re GusGus’s President, President Bongo to be…
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Ipswich vs. Gavin Portland
In one corner we have the residents of Ipswich – one of Britain’s oldest and most historic towns – who…