Track by Track: Iceland’s Goth Underground On New Myrkfælni Compilation

MYRKFÆLNI is a magazine about the Icelandic underground music scene. Their second compilation, available as a download and cassette, features everything from hardcore to hip hop—”something for everyone to both love and hate,” they say. Here’s what each artist had to say about their contribution.

MYRKFÆLNI #2 by MYRKFÆLNI

Lafði Lútra
World Narcosis: This is probably World Narcosis’ most ‘fun’ song. It earned the working title “Celestine lagið” for its headbangable parts, further emphasised by getting the singer of said band to do guest vocals.

Sea Creature
IDK IDA: The only song I’ve written about love is a heartbroken one. Someone broke my heart and I couldn’t forget her; I was like a sea creature on land. It’s the first track I produced in Iceland, on the floor of Sveinbjörn Thorarensen’s studio space.

Verslunarleiðangur
Lúin Bein: A tiny little tune made from scratch in a couple of days with an assortment of analogue synths, about a cold, slippery bicycle trip to buy coffee, tobacco and gifflar.

Bruni
Dead Herring: This track is fast, short and violent. It’s about blood donation, mucus shit and burning alive. We’re nice people though.

HLAUPTU
Salka from CYBER: After playing together in 2017, we talked with HATARI about making a song together. Klemens and I exchanged demos, spending about eight hours in the studio trying different things. The concept came naturally since we all play clear roles in our bands; Jóhanna and I are the deadly predators looking for someone to play with, Klemens is the willing victim, and Matti overlooks the whole thing, judging it from above. The perfect game of tag!

Baby Please Let Me In (For Christmas)
Pink Street Boys: A song about a guy coming to his babe for Christmas.

Silverstream
Rattofer: Rattofer is an odd one who’s not so present in the Reykjavík scene. However, he’s spent many hours somewhere in the dark with his monitors overheating. If there were a soundtrack for a high energy, endless-sleep-deprivation experience, you’d likely hear his music rumbling and booming in the background.

Í blindbyl ótta og haturs
Vonlaus: The endless cycle of inebriation and self-hate; we drink to escape from hopelessness only to awaken once more devoid of all hope.

Action Man
Nicolas Kunysz: A one-take track made mainly on an old harmonium, recorded on a cassette four-track. It came out pretty distorted. On the tape was dictaphone recordings of Maggý, Sólveig and I talking nonsense in the U-Bahn in Berlin.

Sword and Shield
GRIT TEETH: If you don’t deliver, you aren’t worth the time. Cops can suck shit.

Suicide Sisters
Madonna + Child: Two devil sisters hold hands and sing a fast-beat techno lullaby about their game of death.

Holographic Capsules
Godchilla: This track’s working title was “Snákurinn liðast” (“The Snake Slithers”). We’re very fond of long, circular riffs. It accidentally sounded very motorcycle—hence the name, a spin on The Capsules motorcycle crew from ‘Akira.’

Hrævareldar (hrásalat)
Holdgervlar: Hrævareldar are a phenomenon similar to Will o’ the wisp: flickering lights seen above swamps, signifying that a body is buried beneath, sometimes with treasure alongside.

Thanks to the compilation curator Margrét Rósa Dóru-Harrysdóttir of Kælan Mikla.

The compilation & magazine are available now at myrkfaelni.bandcamp.com.