Reykjavík Grapevine - 22.05.2009, Page 30

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2009
I had to weave past the drunks spewed at
the bar and the drunks gambling their
last króna on fruit machines to reach the
stairs of Grand Rokk – kinda like Har-
rison Ford in Indiana Jones – only to be
told that the show started an hour after
the time listed on the flyer. Naturally I oc-
cupied my time by drowning my sorrows
with a fine Icelandic beer and watching
the copious amounts of folk celebrating
Iceland’s runner up award in the Eurovi-
sion song contest.
Eventually all this tedious hanging
around was rewarded when Momen-
tum vocalist/bassist Hörður took the
stand – firm, like a proud Viking war-
rior, in front of those glaring orange
lights and equipped to the teeth with a
beard and hair longer than Odin’s pu-
bes. Momentum ś crushing mixture of
post-metal, epic psychedelia and techni-
cal math caused a domino effect of head
bangs across the room.
Dominant figures in the Icelandic
metal scene, Celestine brought the mosh.
A cocktail of emotive Converge punk rock
and doom-ridden brutality mixed with a
floor punch or two equals a fucking good
time. It also featured some of the greatest
breakdowns known to Satan.
Headliners The Psyke Project, one of
Denmark’s foremost exports alongside
Ecco shoes and Carlsberg, started their
late-o’clock set with ‘technical difficul-
ties’. I personally believe it was either the
work of huldufólk or that The Psyke Proj-
ect used up all Grand Rokk’s electricity
charging their über-sludge batteries. Jok-
ing aside, Psyke Project’s slaying guitar
screeches, chug filled bass lines, crash-
ing drums and guttural vocals compli-
mented for one hell of a show.
Highlights of the night include the
small girl in the grey jeans slam dancing
with the best of ‘em and Psyke Project
bassist Jeppe’s showman antics. All of
which kicked Eurovision’s ass.
— JONATHAN BAKER ESQ.
keep up standard. Good thing for all
of us that the good men of Sudden
Weather Change agreed to lavish their
sensuous ode to teenage boredom -
Beatlemania - upon this ish. Brimming
with the odd mix of exuberance
and ennui that's been winning over
local crowds for two years now (and
ensured a tightly packed release gig at
Grand Rokk last week), the track is a
prime cut off their prime début, Stop!
in the name of handgrenade whatever
and ever amen, man...
After introducing our awesome new
"free track of the issue" thing with
a splendid Valgeir Sigurðsson piece
last issue, we knew we had to score
you guys something extra special to
Sudden Weather Change
Beatlemania
suddenweatherchange
Download the free track of the issue
BEATLEMANIA at
www.grapevine.is
Concert Reviews
Helgi Hrafn Jónsson
For the Rest of My Childhood
(2009)
helgijonsson
It's quite nice.
Although perhaps not the most
inspired 43 minutes ever committed
to CD, For The Rest Of My Childhood
nevertheless accomplishes very
nicely what it sets out to do. Helgi
Hrafn’s beautiful voice, strained and
desperate, yet somehow also formal
and wooden, carves its way through
seven predictable post-punk numbers
with amiable charm. Oddly enough, it
seems to become more defined at the
end: the last three tracks are by far
the most honest and vulnerable on the
album.
The stakes are never raised
quite high enough to make an impact,
however, and charm alone cannot
sustain the album’s energy. The
pedestrian production isn’t quite
decisive enough to provide much of
an atmosphere either, making for a
frustrating listen; it’s too punctuated
and forceful to drift away to, and yet
too laconic to get excited about. on the
album.—SINDRI ELDON
After leading us on with thirteen
minutes of magnificent drone,
Quadriplegiac’s opening track devolves
into a stoned, floppy masturbation
session, as happy to adopt rock and
metal’s biggest clichés as it is to ignore
their ground rules. This sets the tone
nicely for the two other epic-length
tracks on the album, which both shift
carefully between abject, angst-ridden
doom and massive power riffs barely
visible through the cloud of bong smoke
around them. And as if the ‘stoner-rock’
(what a stupid term) posturing wasn’t
bad enough, it also seems haphazardly
thrown in, as if an afterthought. The
tough-guy blues riffs have been done
to death, and frankly the album doesn’t
need them. It functions perfectly well
as an exhibit of glorious, unforgiving
sludge, as entrancing as it is satanic.
—SINDRI ELDON
Plastic Gods
Quadriplegiac (2009)
plasticgods
Excellent metal ambience,
though regrettably rife with the
unmistakable scent of cock.
Carving a smooth line from the
cutesy, sweet-toothed openers
into darker territory towards
the end, Alltihop’s eventual slide
into depression is so welcome that it
practically renders the first two-thirds
of the album irrelevant. The first six
tracks are so perfectly circular and
go-nowhere that after a while it feels
like your brain is turning sideways.
Tiny cute bells and you-had-to-be-
there samples abound, and the distinct
feeling you’ve heard this many, many
times before is unavoidable. Although
they are technically the same standard
exercises in synth programming
accompanied by those fucking skittish,
pitter-patter drum beats that just won’t
go out of fashion, the album closers
have genuine emotional strength –
something sadly absent for the rest
of the ride – and frankly, they aren’t
interesting enough to make it worth it.
—SINDRI ELDON
Mikael Lind’s second album
is eleven pieces of very laid-
back and relaxing electronic
music. Quite shy and discreet,
"Alltihop" develops its qualities quite
subtly: Lind has a very good sense
for melody and maybe even more,
he is a good composer as he piles
up layer upon layer of different and
beautiful synth parts. However, at
a certain point this also reveals the
biggest shortcoming of the album: the
amount of Lind’s great ideas does not
meet with the lifeless instrumental
conversion – just synthesizer and a
computer – at all. Mostly in more quiet
parts as in "An Army Of Puppets,” the
album is thin and somehow incomplete
without a broader arrangement of
instruments and can enfold neither
emotion nor dynamics in the end.
That is why "Alltihop" seems more a
blueprint of a record.
—FLORIAN ZÜHLKE
++–
Mikael Lind
Alltihop (2009)
mikaellind
» Boring
Nice electronic tunes arranged
with too little fantasy
«
+–
Nordic Sludge At
Its Best
The Psyke Project
Celestine
Momentum
Saturday, May 16th
thepsykeproject
Brutal!!!
TRACK OF
THE ISSUE
Download your
free copy at
grapevine.is
MUSIC
&
NIGHT
LIFE
Dr. Zühlke
and Mr. Eldon
–
Two men.
One album.
Lots of dissent.
MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS – EDDAS AND SAGAS
The Ancient Vellums on Display
ICELAND :: FILM – Berlin – Copenhagen – Reykjavík
Icelandic Filmmaking 1904-2008
A LOOK INTO NATURE
The Story of the Icelandic Museum of Natural History
EXHIBITIONS - GUIDED TOURS
CAFETERIA - CULTURE SHOP
The Culture House – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
National Centre for Cultural Heritage
Hverfi sgata 15 · 101 Reykjavík (City Centre)
Tel: 545 1400 · www.thjodmenning.is
Open daily between 11 am and 5 pm
Free guided tour of THE MEDIEVAL MANU-
SCRIPTS exhibition Mon and Fri at 3:30 pm.