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TRACK OF THE ISSUE – THE DANDELION SEEDS: LOVE AND SWEET DREAMS
Man, if there’s one band out there that’s getting us somewhat excited about Icelandic rock again, it’s the goddamn Dandelion Seeds. Those psych-rockin’ bastards have been lurking on the edge of (what passes for) the local rock scene for a while now,…
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Are Icelanders Americanized? Really?
With their propensity for obesity and economic mismanagement, one could be forgiven for thinking of the Icelanders as little Americans. Conventional wisdom would indeed suggest this. While the Scandinavians are busy constructing their welfare states full of equality and general contentment, the…
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Dead Skeletons: Dead Magick I & II
If Two Step Horror is all about sex/David Lynch, then Dead Skeletons are all death/Jim Jarmusch. The creation of Henrik ‘Singapore Sling’ Björnsson and Jón Sæmundur (aka artist Nonni Dead), their album ‘Dead Magick I & II’ is the latest in the…
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Two Step Horror: Living Room Music
It’s been a busy time recently over at the local leather-clad sex ‘n’ death collective, commonly known as Vebeth. The last month has seen two releases from artists within the collective, both exploring the darker side of rock with varying results. First…
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Tryggvi Hübner: 2.0
Tryggvi Hübner is an accomplished guitar player. He’s tactful, tasteful and many other positive adjectives that end in -ful. And he’s skilled as a motherfucker. But here’s the kicker: his ambitious and dynamic record is so harmless and diluted that it goes…
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The Foreigner’s Prerogative
So who the frak is Jóhann Jóhannsson? He’s an accomplished Icelandic musician, a self-taught composer with seven solo albums and seven movie soundtracks under his belt, as well as having been a member of several successful Icelandic bands, including HAM, Lhooq, Unun,…
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Puzzle Muteson
Icelandic record label Bedroom Community has taken UK artist Puzzle Muteson under its wing and released his debut, ‘En Garde’. This young musician has composed ten songs that comfort the ears with eerie, trembling vocals and soothing guitar picks, blended with electronic…
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Gig Long, Party Hard!
Another day, another slice of grim apocalyptic action that is life in Iceland. While Grímsvötn’s eruption took a firm grip of the country by the balls and the airport was closed, one casualty of this was the cancellation of the long awaited…
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Arabian Horse
The year 2010 was one of transition, with too many bands shuffling around indecisively. This year seems it will be more of the same, with the off-the-mainstream music still finding its footing while the dreamlike, stripped-down, sliced-up, ’85-’93 inflected sound pulses and…
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TRACK OF ISSUE – GUSGUS ARABIAN: HORSE SAMPLER
It appears the verdict is in: with ‘Arabian Horse’, beloved electro legends GusGus have crafted a masterpiece of a record, with mesmerising tunes, stomping rhythms and some hypnotic melodies. Folks are already claiming it’s 2011’s strongest ALBUM OF THE YEAR contender thus…
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Solaris 2.0
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Krakow writer Stanislaw Lem’s novel ‘Solaris’, and this should be celebrated. Luckily, the masterful Ben Frost and Daníel Bjarnason have created an ambitious project doing just that, with the help of one…
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Cyndi Lauper? Really?
When I first learned Cyndi Lauper would be one of the first international pop artists to perform in Harpa, I was really surprised. Who would want to see Cyndi Lauper? Shouldn’t she just stick to playing her hits over and over in…
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EVIL SOUND HALF-RUINS EVIL CONCERT
An evening of extreme music on what was probably the sunniest weekend Iceland has seen so far this year? It does seem a little incongruous, but once we’re inside the dark, dank confines of Kaffistofan the pleasant weather outside can easily be…
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Svartidauði: Temple of Deformation
Svartidauði have made unpleasantries their business for some time now. But despite a loyal cult following, they’ve hardly been prolific. In times when a large number of black metal bands are trying to not sound black metal, Svartidauði revels in what once…
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Steve Sampling: The Optimist
Steve Sampling’s trip-tastic journey through his magical adventure world of drum patterns, random delay effects, airtight compression and—you guessed it—oodles upon oodles of samples is light, accessible and enjoyable, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, mind you. The album gets a bit…
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Catch Retro Stefson In Iceland While You Can
Retro Stefson are briefly coming home to play a show at NASA on June 1 before going back to Europe to play at festival all summer. The band 1985, which includes DJ Danni Deluxe and DJ Dori, will warm up the crowd.…
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Mad Scientist Samaris
During the Reykjavík Music Mess I caught up with Samaris, the recent winners of Músíktilraunir. The band is composed of three Icelandic youngsters: Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir, Jófríður Ákadóttir, and Þórður Kári Steinþórsson (Doddi). Since Áslaug couldn’t make it to the show that…
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Nico Muhly: I Drink The Air Before Me
IDTABM reaches far and wide in its attempts to balance playful flute frolics and dark, sombre horns, and Muhly has created a piece that, while ostensibly a soundtrack to a visual work, also functions fairly well as a darkly atmospheric work in…
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The Exponential Curve Of Caribou
With five albums under his belt, Dan Snaith’s sound continues to approach a plane of infinite possibilities. From the club-inspired ‘Swim’ to the psychedelic ‘The Milk of Human Kindness,’ there is no doubt Dan, who goes by the moniker Caribou, has found…
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Malneirophrenia: M
Malneirophrenia are a trio consisting of piano, cello and electric bass that used to call itself Medectophobia (but that was probably too difficult to pronounce). They play “horror punk cabaret” that feels like silent cinema soundtracks with a transfusion of Hitchcockian tension.…
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Reason to Believe: The Scenery
This review really can’t do justice to the cataclysm that is listening to Reason To Believe’s debut album. The glossy production values can’t mask the gaping homogeny that comes with having a cut-and-paste generic emo sound, along with whiny lyrics that surely…
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The Heavy Experience: The Heavy Experience
Just how menacing can a saxophone sound? Thanks to the debut effort from The Heavy Experience, we know the answer to be…rather a lot. Their 10” release has two tracks of chasmal rock sounds that sit at the border between Earth’s late-era…
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Sin Fang: Summer Echoes
Sin Fang’s new album, ‘Summer Echoes,’ is that place where the ocean meets an erupting volcano. In some tracks, you can hear Sindri Már Sigfússon’s voice moan through the electronic swooshing of the waves, but in others, the vocals, guitar, and drums…