Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.01.2008, Qupperneq 36

20 | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 01 2008 | Article
The once-popular battle of the bands competi-
tion has been on the wane for several years now,
probably because of the ubiquity of such contests
and the increasing ease of access to live music
through festivals and tours, but 2007 saw the for-
mat stage something of a revival to the benefit of
one Icelandic band in particular.
A large part of BBC’s World Service program-
ming focuses on global culture, from Japanese
ladyboys to new music, and it’s the latter subject
that they were interested in when Auntie (as the
BBC is affectionately known in England; it’s old
and friendly) asked for the best new bands from
around the world to submit one track for a com-
petition branded as the Next Big Thing. The judg-
ing panel, all well known in the music world and
very successful in their own right, then whittled
the piles of entries down to just five finalists from
five very different corners of the planet. Whilst it’s
debatable if the World Service has enough clout
to boost a band’s profile in the same way that
wretched programs like The X Factor, which can
essentially rig the pop charts by acting as king
maker to pretty much any idiot they choose, the
competition was still a credible exercise thanks to
the high standing of the judges and brilliant per-
formances from the likes of Iceland’s Hraun, one
of the bands chosen to play their song at the world
finals in London.
The BBC’s Maida Vale studios, located in
leafy North London, are something of a national
treasure to Brits, with the run-down buildings
hosting the legendary John Peel sessions for years
as well as performances from just about every ma-
jor band and musician to have ruffled the charts
in the last four decades. With this in mind, to play
there is a privilege rarely bestowed upon a band
which hasn’t graced the cover of a magazine or
received flattering reviews in the national press
and, frankly, the first finalist, the United Arab
Emirates’ Jeremie Johnson, looked quite lonely as
a solo artist on the substantial stage (located deep
within the bowels of the facility) but was mildly
impressive when his backing tape kicked in. The
said backing tape sounded like it was made by
remixing Queen, Celine Dion and Phil Spector
and proved to be just one of the oddities of a con-
test that seemed to have a little too much focus
on what the end result might sound and look like
when broadcast rather than being a talent compe-
tition based purely on musical ability.
How can you compare a solo singer, albeit
an admirably talented one, who has a CD-R in-
stead of a live band, to a group of Kenyan multi-
instrumentalists (Yunasi) or a French art-school
electro outfit (Maya McCallum) on the basis of
one song? I was certainly none the wiser as to who
would be the next big thing on the basis of what
the bands performed that afternoon, despite my
predilection towards Icelandic music. The fifth
band in the final, a mass of Serbians called Vrelo
who combined a gang of Lolita-esque schoolgirl
singers and heavy metal to achieve the sort of re-
sult that could only be considered credible in a
very remote place, were perhaps the weakest act.
Even the schoolgirls looked more like the dinner
lady than Britney Spears and their chosen song
was, to be blunt, lacking in every way. But thank-
fully Hraun’s song was firmly located at the other
end of the scale of credibility.
Hraun submitted a vocal-based compo-
sition, Ástarsaga úr fjöllunum, which tells the
sorry tale of a troll who falls in love but discovers
the object of his affections has turned to stone.
The song’s airy, harmonised vocals and sparse,
plucked-guitar accompaniment create a brilliant
piece of understated music making and, when lis-
tening to the recorded version, you could easily
understand why judges such as Talvin Singh and
William Orbit praised the band.
However, there was a sting in the tail in the
form of a large dose of irony when it came to judg-
ing the final result after all the bands had played
their one song several times for the benefit of the
cameras and microphones. As previously men-
tioned, it was difficult to see how five acts that play
in five entirely different styles could be compared
to each other and Hraun suffered the most from
this problem. Because the final was being filmed,
all the entries had to give the impression that the
one song they played was part of a longer set per-
formed for the benefit of the judges and audience.
So, when Hraun strode onto stage clutching their
instruments and drumsticks to play the song that
got them through to the final, it was purely for
show (apart from Svavar Knútur’s acoustic guitar)
and there was no chance to show the musical abil-
ity that the band demonstrated so well two days
previously at a warm-up gig in London’s Old Street
district. The band’s keyboard player looked a bit
lost as his power cable lay unattached on the floor,
the drummer didn’t touch his kit at all and the rest
of the band, flute player and all, just sang, albeit
beautifully. It was frustrating that Hraun weren’t
given the opportunity to play to the maximum of
their ability but, then again, they might not have
even got to the final had they submitted a different
song. They’d made their bed and now they had to
sleep in it.
The Kenyan entry, Yunasi, were worthy win-
ners in that they demonstrated a combination
of energy, epic percussion skills and a universal
appeal thanks to their use of several languages
and musical styles. Their winning song may have
sounded like a world music cynic’s worst night-
mare but to the open-minded they beat all other
entries, bar Hraun, hands down. Perhaps if the
Icelanders had entered a different song in the
competition then the day would have taken a dif-
ferent course – they’d either have won or they’d
have been sitting at home listening to the final on
the radio.
What the Judges Said:
Talvin Singh - Producer, DJ, instrumentalist and
Mercury Music Prize winner (1998)
“I really enjoyed it, it’s a wonderful piece of music
and I’d love to hear it in a pair of headphones in
a really chilled place. I found it very deceiving be-
cause visually they had all these instruments on
stage so what you’re seeing doesn’t really match
what you’re hearing – that’s the only thing that
threw me off. Other than that, I thought that aes-
thetically it was a really nice piece of music with
beautiful harmonies. The voice is the ultimate in-
strument, every instrument imitates the voice, but
with so many instruments on stage it was deceiv-
ing, the drummer looked a bit redundant.
Nile Rodgers - Bassist and co-founder of seminal
New York disco/funk band Chic (Le Freak etc)
“Can I see it in the charts? Maybe in a different
era because in my head I think in terms of quality
of music but when you ask me if it could be in
the charts I have to visualise what the charts are
today and it’s a very different environment. Maybe
somebody can have a situation, the perfect storm,
and it’s the right thing at the right time with the
right band. Compositionally it absolutely could be
but in today’s world I’m not sure if it could be, it’s
not clear to me how one would promote that type
of song. If you had it next to Rihanna’s Umbrella…
But it’s a terrific composition, harmonically it’s
wonderful, the only problem is that in this setting
the visual didn’t sync with what I was hearing and
I understand that if you’re a band then you’re used
to performing the song every night and holding
your instruments, you don’t put your instruments
down to sing – I get that – it’s just weird if you don’t
tell me that’s what you’re going to do.”
Tahita Bulmer. - New Young Pony Club lead vo-
calist
“I really enjoyed it. In terms of what we’re looking
for, the band is very diverse and it reminds me of
the band collective stuff like Broken Social Scene.
I think they’d fit in really well with that kind of a
scene. They could be massive on the College cir-
cuit, definitely – you need a bit of introspective
music to get over the emotional times in your life!
I also think it’s great when people sing in their re-
gional languages and dialects, it’s got to open the
eyes of Westerners, American and English people
in particular, who are used to having everything
sung in their mother tongue, so it’s great to hear.
Also, in terms of how it makes you feel and how
you react to songs; it is different hearing Mozart
sung in German and opera sung in Italian, they
have a different emotional resonance.”
Text by Ben H. Murray
Battle of the Lands
How can you compare
a solo singer, albeit an
admirably talented one,
who has a CD-R instead
of a live band, to a group
of Kenyan multi-instru-
mentalists (Yunasi) or a
French art-school electro
outfit (Maya McCallum)
on the basis of one song?
Reykjavík pop band Hraun delivered the goods for
the BBC World Service. The unanimous decision
was that all those instruments on stage had little to
do with the performance