Words by

John Rogers, Hannah Jane Cohen and Alice Demurtas

Photo by

Hörður Sveinsson

SO MUCH NEWNESS. It’s part six of our epic Airwaves 2017 festival debutantes guide.

Mighty Bear
Iceland’s resurgent drag scene is colourful, rich and varied, and Mighty Bear is one of the artists who crosses over into creating original music. Expect glamourous, glittering gowns, MF Doom-goes-disco face masks, and dark, sweeping electronica.

Octal Industries
This techno collaboration between Icelandic producer Jonas Thor Gudmundsson, aka Ruxpin, and his US cohort Michael Sickinger has been running since 2004. 13 years later, they’ll finally bring their feel-good beats to the stage at Airwaves.

Omotrack
One of the runners-up in Músiktilraunir, Omotrack is a band based around brothers Markús and Birkir Bjarnason, who were brought up in Ethiopia. They incorporate the music of their childhood, with some unexpected brass flourishes in their neat ‘n’ tidy indie-rock sound. Read our interview here.

Paunkholm
If all this sounds a bit too cool and contemporary for you, then don’t worry. Paunkholm are bringing it with their acoustic soft-rock ballads. And not you, me, Bono, Chris Rea, or anyone we know can stop them.

PASHN
PASHN is an Icelandic pop-electronic duo formed by Ragnhildur Veigarsdóttir and Ása Bjartmarz. By combining dark electro-pop with pulsing, murky synths and crystal-clear vocals, PASHN blend a sense of the ethereal with real grooves.

See more new bands here.