Author: Ben H. Murray
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Kira Kira
In recent years, the successful portions of the Icelandic post-rock scene have made a sound to call their own and…
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…
Marriage of Mystery
Country Wedding, a new film directed by BAFTA award-winning Icelander Valdís Óskarsdóttir, is set to be released later this summer,…
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…
Boys In A Band
With production from Sigur Rós / Cocteau Twins album maestro Ken Thomas, you might expect Boys In A Band’s first…
Atomstation
The Grapevine gets a ‘sleazy thanks’ in the sleeve but we’ll not be influenced by such blatant arse kissing. Actually,…
Cortes
It was recently explained to me, when having dinner in a nice restaurant, that a ram’s testicle is best eaten…
Middle East Music Fest
A Palestine benefit concert in Iceland – not an obvious event for a Thursday night at Organ, but who cares…
Stórsveit Nix Noltes
Whilst Gogol Bordello seem to have the international monopoly on high-energy folk, using what might be described as a cynical…
Tommygun Preachers
With a name like a spaghetti Western and songs such as ‘Drifter’ and ‘Hillbilly Purgatory’, you’d imagine the Tommygun Preachers…
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…
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…
Hraun
Hraun have taken a fair bit of stick from various corners of the Icelandic press. The issue most have with…
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…
Folk and Frost
Despite having a capital city that sits a snowball’s throw away from the North Pole and boasts a population smaller…
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…
Ipswich vs. Gavin Portland
In one corner we have the residents of Ipswich – one of Britain’s oldest and most historic towns – who…