-
Manufacturing Content: The morally bankrupt economy of modern Icelandic hype
Prettyboitjokkó, PATRi!K or Patrik Atlason, is Iceland’s newest pop star manufactured by joint patriarchal forces in a corporate handshake with a mainstream media hungry for freaks and clicks. His first single, conveniently also titled “prettyboitjokkó”, was released March 3 and it’s the…
-
Straumur: Drugs, Masculinity And Depression
Kef LAVÍK is the best-kept secret in the Icelandic music scene. They are two guys in their early twenties hailing from Höfn í Hornafirði, way jaded beyond their years, who for the past year or so have churned out three EPs of…
-
Let The Children Boogie
The year 2012 was a big hit for disco dancers worldwide: they lost their queen, Donna Summer, and their prince, Robin Gibb (from the Bee Gees). But that year also saw the resurgence of Icelandic disco, in the form of ever-pretty and…
-
Psych Fuck
Although not quite of it, Singapore Sling are a constant in the Icelandic music scene. As trends cycle from hip-hop to krútt to metal to techno and back again, Sling comfortably rest on the outskirts, eternally gazing into the void through dark…
-
Straumur’s Guide To An Alternative Christmas
With that hectic Iceland Airwaves week still simmering in our hearts, we feel obligated to bring you a list of the top acts we saw at the festival. Here they are, in no particular order. It’s that time of the year again.…
-
Straumur: Sci-Fi Hits And Electronic Deserts
One of our favourite Icelandic bands, Just Another Snake Cult, just released the best Icelandic music video of 2015 so far, in our humble opinion, for their song “You Live You Die.” The clip features head Snake Þórir Bogason dancing in front…
-
Running Up Those Slippery Steps: Bjarni Bernharður’s Journey Through The Darkness
Poet and painter Bjarni Bernharður Bjarnason is a unique presence in the Icelandic art world. He has endured a life of hardship, marked by poverty, negligent parents, acid, insanity, domestic violence, murder and incarceration. He is also a prolific artist. Since his…
-
Straumur: Hassle, Techno & Balkan Metal!
There’s a brand, brand new musical project out there, and it sounds mighty good. Wesen (“Hassle”) consists of Loji Höskuldsson, formerly of Sudden Weather Change, and Júlía Hermannsdóttir, of the shoegaze band Oyama. They just released their début single, “The Low Road,”…
-
Straumur: Snapshots Of Excellence
Straumur’s favourite electronic album of 2015 (so far), ‘Snapshots’ by Tonik Ensemble, was celebrated with a long-overdue release concert on August 6. Openers Asonat got people moving with their atmospheric trip-hop, which is nicely reminiscent of Björk’s early solo work. Ensemble mastermind…
-
Straumur: Festival Fun & Electro Pop
While Straumur of course live in the great city of Reykjavík, we sometimes make it out into the country. Recently, one half of Straumur’s editorial board took a trip to the East of Iceland, where he attended two local music festivals. One…
-
STRAUMUR: The Best Of 2015, So Far!
For our contribution to the Grapevine’s annual Best of Reykjavík issue, we reflect on the best of the Icelandic music scene in 2015, so far… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePi1vccVGyg Best summer jam: Jón Þór’s “Stelpur” “Stelpur” (“Girls”) is an up-tempo guitardriven number about being wasted in…
-
We Want The Airwaves
We are thrilled to announce that Straumur will host its own Iceland Airwaves off-venue programme at Bíó Paradís, November 5-9. We will have many of our favourite artists perform, including lo-fi indie duo Nolo, who are currently working on their third LP;…
-
Autumnal Blues
The pouring rain in the past couple of weeks has made it painfully obvious: autumn is upon us. It’s the time of the year when it’s best to stay inside, curl up in a foetal position under a blanket and drink some…
-
The Music Festival Season Is Upon Us
The first couple of months of the year are usually pretty uneventful music-wise, but the upcoming Sónar festival later this month is something to look forward to. The festival was born in Barcelona in 1994, and has since been held there every…
-
Not Too Shabby
A lot of great albums were released this year and the best one, in our humble opinion, came early in February: Sin Fang’s third album, ‘Flowers.’ With this one, Sindri Már Sigfússon has mastered his widescreen indie pop sensibilities and Alex Somers’s…
-
Surfing The Airwaves
We have to start by mentioning what a blast we had at the Iceland Airwaves festival. Some highlights from the dozens of shows we saw included Goat putting on a psychedelic tribal ritual, Jon Hopkins turning Harpa’s Silfurberg Hall into a giant…
-
Young Boys And The Movies
Sin Fang’s ‘Flowers’ is one of our favourite albums of the year and now one of its standout tracks, “Young Boys,” has been remixed by none other than Jónsi from Sigur Rós. Of course Jónsi is quite familiar with the material since…
-
On And Off The Venue
First of all, we hope you read our last column and followed our advice about getting your Iceland Airwaves ticket because the festival announced this week that the 15th annual event is officially sold out. It seems that the festival only gets…
-
Autumn Horror
To begin with, the band Two Step Horror—duo Þórður Grímsson and Anna Margrét Björnsson—have just released two new songs on Soundcloud that are well worth your time and attention. Their 2011 debut, ‘Living Room Music,’ was full of slow burning darkwave with…
-
Marching On A Road To Nowhere
Anyone who’s seen the Talking Heads’ phenomenal concert film ‘Stop Making Sense’ knows that David Byrne does not fuck around when it comes to live shows. He doesn’t look at them as an extension or a promotional vehicle for a studio record…
-
It’s A Celebration!
Every once in a while we like to indulge in a bit of shameless self-promotion and we are doing so now for a very good reason, so bear with us. On July 21 last year, we launched straum.is, on which we have…
-
GusGus Bid Farewell To Faktorý
The Sunday night in question was special and historical for few different reasons. It was GusGus’ first concert at Faktorý and it was GusGus’ last concert at Faktorý. It was Sunday night and it was the last night Faktorý would be open…
-
Bárujárn: Bárujárn
Bárujárn got a lot of hype a few years back when they hit the scene with their inventive breed of dark surf rock that featured the oldest electronic instrument out there, the theremin, which is rarely used nowadays (outside of the occasional…
