Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.07.2008, Blaðsíða 24

24 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 09—2008
CONCERT REVIEW By By Ben H. Murray — pHoto By gaSCD REVIEWS
Drone-laden psych rock is a difficult beast to
tame – too much noise and feedback and it
sounds like an inglorious mess, too precise and
energetic, well, it's something else they're play-
ing. A happy medium is required and Singapore
Sling just scraped into the latter category on a
sweaty Saturday night in Organ.
The opening bars of 'Sugar', some way into
their set, was arguably the point where the six
piece achieved said happy medium. Driving,
droning rock in the style of The Fall crossed with
The Velvet Underground, complete with Henrik
Bjornsson's deadpan Lou Reed-style vocal de-
livery, washed around the venue like sweet tast-
ing fog on a summer's morning and had people
dancing on tables to get a better view. 'Godman'
and 'Let’s Go Dancing' were received with equal
enthusiasm, and rightly so.
Following a long tradition of female rock bass-
ists, from the two The Smashing Pumpkins have
employed to Kim Deal of The Pixies, Sling's Bíbi
is one sassy rhythm queen. Anyone who heard
and witnessed the frenetic riffs on 'Sugar' will un-
derstand how unassumingly impressive she is on
stage. Whilst the rest of the band put on a low-key
performance, sedate even, her confident manner
and driving pulses of ground-swelling low notes
provided charisma to balance out the other band
members’ apparent lack of enthusiasm for a late-
night weekend slot possibly more suited to a band
with greater uplifting qualities.
That's not to say Organ wasn't packed, or
that a majority of the audience weren't enjoying
Singapore Sling's rather epic set but, just as the
90s shoegaze scene was famous for "celebrat-
ing itself" in certain parts of the world (fans and
bands all went to each other’s gigs thus creating
the buzz through their own presence), you got the
feeling that it was the avid fans that made the at-
mosphere rather than the band.
Sugar and Bass Make Singapore
Sling Just Palatable
sinGapore slinG is effervescent
WHERE
Organ
WHEN
Friday, June 20
WHO
Singapore Sling
THE VERDICT
Most people present
knew Singapore Sling can
play better than they did,
but the evening still had
some classy moments.
THE VERDICT
A solid release, which
adds little new to an estab-
lished catalogue.
LISTEN & BuY
kimi.grapewire.net
THE VERDICT
Icelandic folk-rockers
Grjóthraun leave little to
be excited about.
LISTEN & BuY
kimi.grapewire.net
Benni Hemm Hemm has reached a large number of fans with his
brass-laden acoustic pop on his previous two albums. After a suc-
cessful collaboration project with Swede Jens Lekman, Benni Hemm
Hemm now returns with Murta St. Calunga, his third studio album.
Overall, arrangements and song writing sound a little more sophis-
ticated than on his last album, Kajak, although not very different. It
contains all the innocence and sweetness that is possible to muster
from a horn-section and acoustic guitars. Benni’s lyrics are entertain-
ing and his humorous take on political issues on songs like Whaling
in the North Atlantic and Avían í Afghanistan is refreshing. This is a
very solid Benni Hemm Hemm release, if not entirely original.
Grjóthrun is best described as authentic Icelandic folk-rock. It has
never been a music genre that inspires me with pride in my cultural
heritage, but let’s focus on the positive: 1) I enjoyed the song Jónas,
not least because the lyric was written by the bass player when he was
11-years old; 2) the guitar sound is good, almost as good as the drum
sound is flat and horrible. I’ll skip the negatives, but let it suffice to say
that otherwise, I didn’t enjoy this release. Fans of Þursaflokkurinn will
undoubtedly find something of interest in this, but again, Þursaflok-
kurinn has never inspired much pride in me either. I see this band
playing staff parties and the occasional political rally in the future.
The political rallies will undoubtedly be organised by themselves. I’d
recommend you skip this one, but some people enjoy challenges.
Benni Hemm Hemm
Murta St. Calunga
Grjóthrun
Grjóthrun í Hólshreppi
revieWed By Sveinn Birkir BJörnSSon
revieWed By Sveinn Birkir BJörnSSon
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