Straumur: Poem Thiefs Dancing In The Disco Lights

Grísalappalísa, Iceland’s premier literate new wave band, just put our their first new song in like ages, and threw a concert at Kex Hostel—their first in over a year. It’s good to have them back and ‘Kvæðaþjófurinn’ (Poem Thief), does not disappoint. It’s a short romp clocking in at 1:45 minutes, with guitars fuzzed up beyond recognition and poetry rants and title shouting galore. It comes with a music video of the band wandering around Reykjavík drinking beer and smoking cigarettes at various traffic islands.

We saw them perform at Kex and they’ve lost none of their explosive live energy. Frontman Gunnar Ragnarsson, pulled out all the Jagger/Bowie gender-bending stops, in a glam get-up with eye make-up, shaking his hips like a modern day Elvis. The band is apparently hard at work on their third LP, which should see the light of release in the coming months. Grísalappalísa, it’s good to have you back!

Musician Úlfur Hansson, formerly of hard-core band, Swords of Chaos, and his own experimental solo ventures, just released the song ‘Fovea,’ the first single of an upcoming album, entitled ‘Arborescence.’ He’s still experimental, but now he sings for the first time. The backdrop is a massive soundscape of cascading acoustics and electronics; banjo plucking, synth sub bass, guitar strumming and complex percussion. But it never gets cluttered and Úlfur’s gentle voice sits comfortably on top of it.

The electro musician Andi (Andri Eyjólfsson), who released his first album under the same name last year on the independent label Lady Boy Records, just put out his first music video. It’s for a brand new track called ‘Lónólongó’ and was directed by Sigurður Möller Sívertsen and shot by Heimir Gestur Valdimarsson, with Gígja Jónsdóttir in the lead role. It’s a glossy electroclash cut with a walking synth melody and the video has a girl modern dancing, drenched in  disco lights, like there was no tomorrow . The song is a stand-alone single that will be followed by Andi’s second album, scheduled to come out in early 2018. See And with Grísalappalísa at Húrra tonight.