Published November 3, 2006
Supposedly there’s a whole generation of young artists and musicians who all have the same perspective on their work to justify the title “the cute generation”. The pillars of the “movement” are often named as Sigur Rós and múm. Let’s add Skakkamanage to the list. This lo-fi minimalistic music is cute as hell, partly recorded in bedrooms and apartments in Reykjavík. Nice, odd and sometime catchy folk songs that have some weird attraction that’s hard to pinpoint. But somehow the album never reaches greatness and after a few listens left me annoyed. Annoyed because Skakkamanage could have done better, judging from their live shows. They seem to have fallen into the pit that’s marked: lo-fi makes everything great. Which is a bad pit. On the last track, Colonial, they finally crawl out of that pit and show us something amazing. Despite its shortcomings though, it’s probably one of the most interesting Icelandic albums this year. PH
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