Life Is Wonderful! Grapevine’s FANCY Iceland Airwaves 2013 Compilation Is Here!

Wow, guys. Just think how much time, energy, effort and resources it takes to create a finished music recording. I mean, there’s the instruments – the years of learning, the borrowing and buying, the stringing, tuning and and playing – and that’s just the start of it. There’s all those hours, days, weeks, months of listening, developing personal taste, allowing it all to filter and percolate through your own psyche before you even open your mouth to sing or put fingers to strings, keys, buttons, whatever your weapon of choice might be. There’s the studio time, or the establishing of a bedroom studio, with all the adapters and mic stands and XLR leads and pedal batteries and input-selecting, mix-tweaking, double-tracking, file-exporting fun that entails. Then, if it’s your thing, mastering it, so that it sits comfortably and plays nicely with other songs of its era. And then? The endless game of reaching listeners, in the hope that somewhere along the way you managed to distill something essential; that after this journey into music-making, someone might find it on Soundcloud, read about it on a blog or hear a friend playing it on the car stereo – and that some kind of weird click might occur in a listener. The sense that (as Martin Amis put it when talking about meeting a certain type of reader at a book-signing) “communion has occurred”.

Well, with that in mind, we’re pleased to present our 2013 Iceland Airwaves compilation – the recorded results of 49 such individual, miniature odysseys. All of these bands have put in the time it took to get into your iTunes library. And, if you’re one the many Grapevine readers who are coming to Iceland Airwaves festival next week (!!NEXT WEEK OMG!!), then you still have time to work your way through this lot, to give them the care and attention they deserve, and find one, or two, or more, that make something ping in you like a tuning fork – whether you want to laugh, cry, dance, or slam your head into the bass bin to make it as loud as humanly possible – and go and see the artist responsible play it live. And this being Airwaves, you’ll probably get the chance to buy them a beer afterwards too.

Friends, wow! This life is wonderful! There’s music all around us, more so that ever! AIRWAVES IS COMING!

Download it RIGHT HERE (note that the file is huge, and Rapidshare is super slow. We are working on a better solution, though). And here’s what you’ll find on the other side:

PÉTUR BEN – Visions
ULTRA MEGA TECHNOBANDIÐ STEFÁN – Babylon Ft. Arnór Dan
BÁRUJÁRN – Vígspá
MOSES HIGHTOWER – Troðinn Snjór
PRINSPÓLÓ – Bragdarefur
KJURR – You
KONTINUUM – Moonshine
BELLSTOP – Trouble
SINDRI ELDON – Bitter & Resentful
SAKTMÓÐIGUR – Kobbi V / Strigaskór Nr. 42 – Ellos Son Locos
ANGIST – Death Incarnate
TRUST THE LIES – Generation Genocide
IN THE COMPANY OF MEN – Steini Milljón
MOMENTUM – The Freak Is Alive
CATERPILLARMEN – Gimme Grinders
LOCKERBIE – Heim
HELLVAR – Anna Amma
HYMNALAYA – In My Early Years
HUDSON WAYNE – Feelings
JARA – Animal
1860 – Bastion (It Matters)
BOOGIE TROUBLE – Gin Og Greip
DJ. FLUGVÉL OG GEIMSKIP – Draumar Töframannsins
FUTUREGRAPHER – Ambient Spítt
EPIC RAIN – Shoveling Coals
GOOD MOON DEER – Black
THIZONE – A Moment Of Love
LORD PUSSWHIP – Lil’ Gottskálk
AUXPAN – Traditional Music
KIRA KIRA – Welcome High Frequency Spirits United
BJÖRK VIGGÓSDÓTTIR – Gravity
RETROBOT – Insomnia
KAJAK – Gold Crowned Eagle
NOLO – Feeling
RÖKKURRÓ – Skuggamyndir
ÞÓRIR GEORG – Ask Yourself
YLJA – Út
JÓHANN KRISTINSSON – No Need To Hesitate
ORIGINAL MELODY – Tokio Soul
MAGNOOSE – I’ll Be Quantic
BIGGI HILMARS – Happiness
MY BUBBA – Poem Found In The Pocket Of An Amazon
RAGGA GRÖNDAL & SIGRÍÐUR THORLACIUS – Astrocat Lullaby
HJALTALÍN – Letter To […] AMABA DAMA – Thyrnirose
LOW ROAR – Friends Make Garbage, GoodFriends Take It Out
amiina – Over And Again

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