Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.10.2007, Page 8

14 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 16 2007 | Previews
Ben Frost originally studied music in Melbourne,
Australia, and began making a career as a sound
artist in the great down under. Of course with a
name like that Iceland was the only possible desti-
nation for a change of environment. He has based
himself here for two years now and developed a
solid name for himself in the local experimental
music scene. He signed with the Bedroom Commu-
nity label, headed by Björk’s long time collaborator
Valgeir Sigurðsson, and released one album under
this label ‘Theory of Machines’, which is accessible
everywhere and has achieved some amazing re-
views across the globe. My favourite is “Arvo Part as
arranged by Trent Reznor.”
He outright refuses to be categorised but
could for these purposes be likened to a composer
or sound artist, creating an aesthetic or an all en-
compassing environment rather than reproducing
a specific sound or style. And he’s not afraid to use
absolutely everything within reach to create his
music, slamming together instruments, tones, tim-
bres, rhythms, noise and silence from opposite ends
of the spectrum into beautiful and haunting com-
positions. Expect more of a complete experience
created during his gigs rather than a track-by-track
set. He has said that since the move to Iceland, he
has noticed some dramatic changes in his music.
Travelling halfway across the globe has pro-
vided his music, unsurprisingly, a more isolated
quality. That is, isolated from genre borrowing, struc-
tural considerations, and other influences that have
previously tainted his unique vision. Like every art-
ist, Ben Frost is in a constant process of refining his
sound into something more internal, essential and
pure. “My music has become more of itself than
of its influences. It has its own space, more whole.
Not built from ten different things but from its own
source.”
Expect tracks of indefinite length, played live
by amplified musicians then sculpted live through
a laptop to his own very specific and impeccable
taste. The last time he played in Iceland was in Hall-
grimskirkja. He brought six Marshall stacks into the
church and had six equally ominous guitar play-
ers thrashing away for the whole 10 or so minutes.
I was expecting the windows to explode but with
all sound diverted through his laptop an unexplain-
able aching sound filled the space. It was sort of
like a tsunami was being poured into a tiny funnel
with utmost reverence and care; a truly unique ex-
perience.
I tried to tease out a hint of what his set is go-
ing to be like at this year’s Airwaves but all I got was
“I’d like to have 5 vocalists and a piano, but it could
change”. Whatever it will be you can be sure it will
be something you are not expecting. You can see
the show in a sort of ‘Bedroom community’ night at
Iðnó on Thursday the 18th, along with some other
artists from the label.
Text by Nick Candy
Ben Frost
What started out as a one-man project in the east-
fjord town Egilsstaðir some two years back has
quickly transformed into the more engrossing acts
of the Icelandic music scene. Raggi, one of three
siblings, took the computer he had used as his key
instrument out of the closet and got his younger
sister Lilja and her Faroese boyfriend Janus to back
him up. The third and oldest family member, Hal-
lur, didn’t want to be left out of the party and soon
joined the group. They called themselves Blood-
group.
Bloodgroup plays powerful and funky rock-
influenced electro-dance-pop. Over the past two
years, their music has evolved, the sound developed
and more instruments, synths and samples added
to the mix. They recently included a fifth member,
DJ Benni B-Ruff, which they say spices things up
even more.
The five-piece had just returned back from
Berlin, where they performed twice at the Pop-
komm festival, when the Grapevine caught up
with them. “These were some great gigs. First we
played a rather small venue and the place was
almost packed,” says singer Lilja. Hallur continues:
“We were really surprised about the turn-out as we
haven’t released an album yet.” “We also played at a
gay-club,” adds Lilja. “That was a crazy gig. Jens took
his shirt of and some mad girls started groping him.
That was just insane.”
Up until now, their party-thirsty fan base has
had to settle for listening to songs on the band’s
Myspace site or attending their awesome live
concerts, but that is all about to change. Blood-
groop’s debut album, ‘Sticky Situation’, is finally
ready and will hopefully be released by the end
of the month. “The album contains 11 songs, both
old ones from the time we had just started writing
music together mixed with new ones,” says Hallur.
“We wrote most of these songs this summer and
recorded them ourselves.”
The band’s intense live gigs have earned them
quite a reputation. “I just want to have fun and flip
out on stage,” explains über-energetic frontman
Lilja. “I never really thought that we would become
something, let alone release an album, so my goal
was always just to have fun and make every single
show be the best concert we had ever played. That
hasn’t and will not change.”
Bloodgroup will play the Iceland Airwaves fes-
tival this year and promise a kick-ass performance.
To warm up for the festival, two gigs are already
lined up. On October 5 they will perform at NASA
and open up for Skátar at Organ the next day.
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Bloodgroup
Fated by neighbouring cubicles their
freshman years at the Academy of the
Arts, Mr. Silla & Mongoose knew they
were destined to be creative partners.
After conjoining workspaces at the
Academy where they study visual arts,
Silla and Mongoose, Sigurlaug Gísladót-
tir and Magnús B. Skarphéðinsson, melt-
ed together their musical ventures quite
literally when they were both sched-
uled to play solo at Kaffi Hljómalind at
Airwaves 2005.
“The idea was to make the acts
sort of glide into each other,” says Silla
of the show. “So we ended up essentially
playing our entire sets together.” Slowly
but surely the two started to collabo-
rate. “I asked Maggi to accompany me
on this Electro night I was playing,” says
Silla, “and from that we got this idea that
maybe he would be on my record, but
that ended up being kind of pointless
because we were working and collabo-
rating so much on each other’s material.
So we just decided to be a band.”
Two years later almost to the day,
Mr. Silla & Mongoose are releasing their
first record, Foxbite, on Airwaves week-
end via the newly formed label rafraf.
“We’re really just about to explode as
far as putting this out there and starting
something new,” says Maggi. “We started
this record shortly after we met,” adds
Silla. “We’ve found it quite difficult to
move on before we got this out.”
Though neither are formally
trained in music, Silla and Maggi attri-
bute their interest and well doing in the
music world to informal training and a
need for expression that brought them
to a self-taught artistic form. “You always
have to be doing something, I think,”
says Maggi. “You try to keep yourself
creative and find some release for it,”
adds Silla. “Or at least that’s sort of the
goal isn’t it, to try to find some medium
in which to be creative.” Silla also sings
in veteran krútt band múm, which has
achieved some notoriety abroad and
will be touring extensively this winter.
“From my perspective it’s com-
pletely different working as a duo,
where in the other instances you’re
pretty much putting forth someone
else’s material. I don’t feel a great bit of
difference between being alone and
being onstage with Maggi,” says Silla.
“I think we have the same kind of
creative freedom as if we were alone,”
says Maggi. “It’s just been working in-
credibly well, all our ideas flow.”
Read a review of Mr. Silla & Mon-
goose’s recent concert at Organ, page
34. Mr. Silla & Mongoose will play Friday
night of Iceland Airwaves 2007, 20:00 at
NASA.
Text by Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir
“Sometimes, I think it might be fun to be in just one
band, and focus on that,” says young musician Þórir.
“But the reason I am in so many bands is that you
form a band, and then the others don’t have time
to do anything for two months and then you have
to form a new band to keep occupied.”
Þórir will probably be this year’s Airwaves
busiest performer. He is a member of three bands
that play during the festival. His solo project My
Summer as a Salvation Soldier, the hardcore out-
fit Gavin Portland, and finally Deathmetal Super-
squad, which will play during the Nordic House
special program on Saturday. “I haven’t finalised the
schedule yet, but so far, I will be playing eight shows
in four days.”
Gavin Portland’s debut album, Views of Dis-
tant Towns, met with great reviews last year. Follow-
ing the release and their performance at last year’s
Airwaves, Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan offered
the band a slot on a Kerrang! mini-tour of the U.K.
in support of post-hardcore legends, Hell is for He-
roes. “He sent us an email and asked us to come on
tour. This was not a big deal really. Basically, there is
just one person in the U.K. that likes Gavin Portland.
It is just a coincidence that he is the editor of Ker-
rang!.”
Þórir’s solo project, My Summer as a Salva-
tion Soldier stands in stark contrast to the abrasive
Gavin Portland. Lo-fi and emotional melodies, usu-
ally strummed on an acoustic guitar by the singer,
although a band sometimes backs him. As a solo
artist, Þórir has toured extensively, including a trip to
SXSW and all over Europe. “I never thought this was
music that many people would accept. I show up
with an out-of-tune guitar and I can’t really sing, and
singing about very personal stuff, I thought people
would shut this out.” His next album is scheduled
for release in two months and will be distributed
by Cargo Records. “I recorded this album by myself.
I just did it on my laptop in my room,” Þórir explains
“I had some difficulties. My laptop crashed and I
lost all my recordings. Eventually though, I had 45
songs ready, and I chose 12 for the album.”
Despite the name, Deathmetal Supersquad
has little to do with death metal. Originally, the
band started as a project between two friends who
played simple folk punk on an acoustic guitar and
a drum kit. The most recent line-up features a bass
player as well, and a third friend who was simply
added so they could spend more time together.
“The point with Deathmetal Supersquad was never
for it to be a real band. It was just for us to be able
to hang out together, because we were not playing
together in any other band. We just decided to add
him as well. He has never played bass before.” The
band is working on an album that will be released
early next year and plans for a tour are underway.
So, which project does he enjoy the most?
“When it comes to pure fun, I’d say Deathmetal Su-
persquad because the only point with that band is
to have fun together. If we don’t feel like rehearsing,
we just go out for a pizza or listen to records and
we never play shows unless it is something we en-
joy.”
Text by Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
Mr. Silla & Mongoose
Þórir
Previews | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 16 2007 | 15
Airwaves Special