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The Progressive Folk Rock Brigade
In the seventies, Icelandic progressive folk music was mainly taken care of by two bands, Spilverk þjóðanna (“Plaything of the Nations”) and Þursaflokkurinn (“Band of Titans”). It all started in legendarily artsy college MH, which would later become the breeding ground for…
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Whooping It Up In 2009
For Icelanders, 2009 was in many ways a god-awful year. Still, there seems to be a hidden link between grim nightlife, gruesome partying and a bad national temperament-rate. So it’s easy to assert that Grapevine’s favorite pastime – getting shitfaced – had…
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Artists Take Their Pick Of Music In 2009
We sorta abhor year-end lists over here at Grapevine HQ. At least when it comes to making them. That has always been a task, and whatever we’ve come up with in the past has in retrospect usually struck us as forced, rushed…
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Looking Back On Another Fine Year Of Music
We sorta abhor year-end lists over here at Grapevine HQ. At least when it comes to making them. That has always been a task, and whatever we’ve come up with in the past has in retrospect usually struck us as forced, rushed…
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Metal And Hardcore In 2009
The year in Metal? In order to kick the ol’ brain cell bundle into gear I got in touch with my friend to compare notes. He assured me that nothing noteworthy had happened beyond the Sororicide reunion and Sólstafir releasing their best…
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I’m No Expert #2
Heyrðu mig nú (“Hear me now”) is a concert series that the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra organizes as an outreach to younger music lovers. Thankfully, I’m not a teenager anymore, but… you know… I scored free tickets. This time, on November 6, they…
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Bloodgroup: Dry Land
While Bloodgroups´ first album was brash, in your face and full of day-glo E numbers, Dry Land sees them relax and breath in a bit more. The chickenfart gurgling synths and minimal beats are still there, but now they´re seriously working their…
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Morðingjarnir: Flóttinn Mikli
Morðingjarnir have been together for nearly five years, which in punk/hardcore terms means that they’re becoming grizzled old warhorses of the scene. And their third album sees them slowly moving away from the core sound of their first two albums. The songs…
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Why It Pays to Quit Your Day Job
Svavar Knútur, singer of Icelandic folk-outfit Hraun, toured Germany a few weeks ago. It was his second visit this year after touring under the Norðrið moniker this spring with Sprengjuhöllin and Dísa. This second sting was a solo tour, so he stuck…
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The Least Obnoxious Xmas Music – Ever
Christmas music is painful at best. Except it is actually Christmas—plus/minus a week. Hearing absolutely horrible songs like the Icelandic version of Wizzard’s I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday sung by heavy metal Eurovision contest dude Eiríkur Hauksson—say, in a crowded…
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Pulling Teeth…
So, by some bizarre paradox it’s Friday the 13th and it’s as I’m riding a weird and monstrous cloud of joy. Then, amassed aural forces conspire to destroy me. In a bad sense. They say never judge a book by its…
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Hjaltalín
A bit like visiting a museum with a class full of art students, Terminal is irritating, pretentious and occasionally grating, but mostly just a soothing and smoothly flowing waste of time. Its massive, almost hyperbolic grandeur is a bit hard to take…
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Kimono
Like one of those moody hipsters that hangs in the background and mumbles a lot, Kimono are back with a new album! And the title is bloody awful! Easy Music For Difficult People is the sort of title that Nickleback would use…
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Stereo Hypnosis
Best enjoyed whilst lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Father-son duo Stereo Hypnosis was formed in 2006 by Jafet Melge (Óskar Thorarensen) and Beatmakin’ Troopa (Pan Thorarensen). The pair are based in the remote island of Flatey in Breiðafjörður, where…
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Caterpillarmen
There are some truly evil people out there. You had a man Like Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter and their children hidden from the world in a basement for eighteen years. And there is apparently a monster in Reykjavík right now…
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I’m No Expert #1
Apparently there are no mandatory rock show-like delays at a classical lunch hour concert, so luckily I arrived just in time. Pianist and curator Nína Margrét Grímsdóttir took the stage, welcomed the audience and explained the day’s concept: a non-verbal poetry or…
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Ben Frost
On By The Throat, artwork and music unfolds like a Scandinavian thriller. On Ben Frost’s new album, artwork and music unfolds like a Scandinavian thriller. Headlights claw their way into the nothingness, ambient werewolves slice through shadows and echo the nervous swells…
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Worm is Green
One of the interesting things about Arkranes (apart from the road out of it) is the variety of music that is coming from there. Such as Worm is Green with their new album, Glow. Their downtempo electronic sound is reminiscent of Massive…
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The History of Icelandic Rock Music: Part 13
The same core players are involved in three of the best Icelandic bands from the seventies, Stuðmenn, Spilverk þjóðanna and Þursaflokkurinn. All are veritable institutions of Icelandic rock history. In the newest ‘Best Icelandic albums list,’ published in 2009, those three bands…
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GusGus
The core members of GusGus have ruled the Icelandic club scene for an obscenely long time (15 years?). And the miraculous thing is that they’ve stayed that course without altering their sound nor updating their image in any significant way. The sound…
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Maria
Listen, if you’re feeling…smooth. Don’t, if you want to think. Singer María Magnúsdóttir’s début is gutsy. A flowing blend of funk, soul, jazz and pop, the album has a sexy sound to it, a kind of long glances over a candle-lit dinner…
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Þóra Björk
I Am a Tree Now, the debut album of singer Þóra Björk, makes a rather valiant attempt to uphold the ‘alt’ end of the ‘alt.pop’ niche, but unfortunately falls somewhat short of the mark it is obviously attempting to reach. This obviousness…
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The History of Icelandic Rock Music: Part 12
By the mid-seventies, indolent hippies were passé and nobody was really singing about love and peace anymore. Heavy drinking and wild hedonism were the order of the day, and this showed in pop lyrics. The word “stuð”, which means something like ‘fun,’…