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Hörður&Emiliana&David&Vincent
Hörður Már Bjarnason, who goes by the stage name M-Band, just released a second single from his forthcoming LP ‘Haust’ (“Fall”) that will hit the shelves… this fall. The song “All Is Love” is a beautiful piece of experimental electronica, with hints…
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The Disco Mothership Lands At Harpa
Moses Hightower started warming up the crowd with some of their polite funk and low-key whispered soul. It went down smoothly, and even got kind of gritty in the last song, with some intense solos. Next up were newcomers Sísí Ey, who…
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ALI
Grísalappalísa’s debut LP is a romper stomper of an album, a high-pitched scream of youthful existential male angst meditated through grooves, riffs and words. They lay it out sonically and lyrically in the opening song, aptly titled “Kraut í G” (a reference…
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Strange Beasts Bárujárn And Árni-related News
The group Bárujárn is a strange beast indeed, a dark surf rock group with a twist; their tunes feature the rarely used, sci-fi sounding theremin. After a long hiatus, the band has finally released their self-titled debut LP, and we’re happy to…
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THE BEST OF REYKJAVÍK MUSIC… SO FAR
The year is, like, only half over at this point. Still, in the spirit of our BEST OF REYKJAVÍK issue, we got our resident music & nightlife gurus Óli Dóri and Davíð Roach to compile a little BEST OF 2013 so far….…
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The Roster of Icelandic Bands
Amiina The former string team for Sigur Rós, Amiina have evolved tremendously over the past few years. With the kalimba, saw, Theremin and other weird instruments, their songs are both ethereal and playful. Apparat Organ Quartet A blend of Kraftwerk and classic…
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Parties of Tomorrow And Yesterday
Keflavík is the birthplace of the Icelandic rock-scene with bands like Hljómar sprouting up there in the late ‘60s. Unfortunately, the Keflavík Music Festival held June 5–9 was a disastrous event plagued by disorganisation that resulted in a lot of cancellations by…
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It Wouldn’t Be A Grapevine Party Without…Some Music Of Course!
It’s been ten years since the first copy of Grapevine saw the Icelandic midnight sun and that certainly calls for an all caps PARTY. For that occasion Straum.is has compiled a list of 10 party hearty songs, one from each year in…
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A Boom-tastic Concert Year
The Boom Years are finally back… when it comes to the import of popular foreign music! Local music lovers still reminisce over the 2003-2008 era, when musicians such as Eric Clapton, Snoop Dogg and The Rapture graced our humble soil on a…
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Echoes Of The White Ark
Reggae/dub big band Ojba Rasta released their debut album last Tuesday and it’s quite phenomenal. Sporting eight songs, hair-metal guitar solos, rapping, sci-fi synthesizers, Icelandic poems from the 19th century and a whole lot of echo, it’s one of the most adventurous…
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Electric Sauna Soul
Jimi Tenor is the sort of guy I’ve heard about for a long time and been like “yeah, that guy sounds pretty interesting, I have to check him out sometime.” But I never do. He is from Finland and has crafted songs…
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The Royal Swimming Hall
The most popular public institutions in Iceland are probably the swimming pools. We have a lot of them in the greater Reykjavík area and if you venture to the countryside and reach a town of more than 50 inhabitants, chances are that…
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The Bars Of Weekends Past
Running a bar in Reykjavík has never been the most stable of businesses. Indeed, for the past twenty years, 101 Reykjavík has seen hundreds of bars open their doors briefly before vanishing into the ether (or bankruptcy). Most of them have a…
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Requiem For A Scene
As Nasa is closing its doors on June 1, it was with great grief that I walked through the lobby of the soon to be demolished concert venue to see GusGus perform one last time. More than any other Icelandic band, GusGus…
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Good Vibrations
Chick Corea was only remotely familiar to me the moment I stepped into the dim red glow of Harpa’s Eldborg concert hall. He is a big name in the jazz universe and has played with canonical figures like Stan Getz and Miles…
