Reykjavík Grapevine - 31.07.2009, Síða 34

22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 11 — 2009“They put on such a
beautiful meal for us.
We had the most
amazing freshest fish I've
ever had in my life.
It was all so perfectly
cooked too...Beautiful!”
Jamie Oliver’s Diary
Free of charge.
Album Review
Although it occasionally shows I
have a feeling I’m going to be in the
minority here, but I’m going to throw it
out there: Retrön may be boisterous,
fun, energetic and charismatic live
performers, but there really isn’t much
interesting going on here, technically
or musically. Sure, there’s the dumb
fun aspect, and the bitzcore Nintendo
awesomeness of POWERUP is nice,
but the whole album rolls predictably
through its repertoire of 80s-style
metal, rarely speedy or variable enough
to warrant much applause.
—SINDRI ELDON
Retrön always sounded as a joke to
me that started playing metal but with
serious overacting, synths and a very
ironic undertone.
On Swordplay and Guitarslay,
they offer ten songs that sound
somewhere between early Iron
Maiden, a student band’s early demos
and early Gameboy-midis. To get
straight to the point: the songs are
quite annoying, and there is not much
to gloss over. The recording is lousy,
the songs are nothing special at all and
the synths really drive you up the wall.
There is only light in two songs at the
end of the record, songs that, by the
way, feature vocal lines: Slow Me and
Helgrindur are really good, rocking 70s
stoner rock, that bring to mind Black
Sabbath or Wolfmother.
It remains a mystery why they
wasted the rest of the record....
—FLORIAN ZüHLkE
Dr. Zühlke
and Mr. Eldon
Two men.
One album.
Lots of dissent.
Retrön
Swordplay And Guitarslay (2009)
retron
» Fun, if you’re the one playing it.
Annoying synthie-metal mixture «
-–
So, the mighty Retrön get a rather unfavourable
treatment from our duo of music reviewers this issue.
This proved somewhat surprising to some of the
Grapevine staff, as we’ve been blasting their album
incessantly on our humble office stereo over the past
couple of weeks, sinking deeper and deeper into their
groove of Gameboy-meets-Fucking Champs inspired
carnage.
Then again, we are not the ones getting paid
to appraise music; our boys are smart boys and their
assessments are to be trusted. Perhaps Retrön ain’t
musically brilliant, awe-inspiring or groundbreaking.
Perhaps Swordplay and Guitarslay as a whole could
and should be a lot better. But the track on offer
as FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE ISSUE still fucking
kicks our ass and inspires us to live our lives in a
more awesome manner, and that’s a pretty damn
good accomplishment for three minutes and twelve
seconds worth of audio. Check it out for yourselves.
Retrön
Slow Me

retron
Download the free track of the issue
SLOW ME at www.grapevine.is
TRACK OF
THE ISSUE
Download your
free copy at
grapevine.is
MUSIC
&
NIGHT
LIFE
Foreign Monkeys draw on simplicity
and charisma for their fuel, and never
grasp beyond their immediate reach,
resulting in a satisfying, although not
very surprising, modern rock romp.
The crunchy, saturated guitars lead us
expertly through the more progressive
numbers, such as DunDun and Black
Cave, but get a little lost in simpler
territory, where firmer, more assertive
strokes would have been more welcome
in the production. The hungry,
angst-ridden vocals range from teeny
annoyance to flat-out brilliance, often
in the same track, leaving the drums as
the only consistent force on the album.
This would ordinarily result in some loss
of accessibility, but the drums plod and
stomp with such virtuous grace and
power that you are not left wanting, and
although it is uneven and imperfect, π
is an example of garage rock at its finest
and most entertaining.
-SINDRI ELDON
Andrew W.K. is a guy you might
have seen in some rather awkward/
awesome music videos in the early 00s.
Not surprisingly most people choose
to ignore and/or hate him, the reason
being that he and his music are highly
hazardous to anyone's cool, something
that Icelanders care a great deal about.
The album is, quite obviously, made
up of cover versions of Japanese pop
songs. The result is silly, like the very
concept of pop music, and fun like pop
music is supposed to be. The album
includes many extremely catchy songs,
some in fact too catchy, but what else
can you expect from a cover album of
this sort.
The album is not being imported to
Iceland, so downloading it would be the
easiest way to obtain it... don't do that,
though. That would be illegal.
-GEIRHARðUR ÞORSTEINSSON
Foreign Monkeys Andrew W.k.
π (2009) The Japan Covers (2009)
foreignmonkeys
When you need your rock to
kick some ass, you need look no
further whatsoever.
andrewwk
+ +
Pointed and satisfying without being
the most original thing ever released,
Form Follows accomplishes something
by not trying too hard to accomplish
anything at all. It‘s just there, in all
its popped-up electronic glory, with
wallop-packing basslines, busy,
urgent beats and moody synths; a
testament to simplicity and solidarity
over unnecessary experimentation. It is
both rich and stripped bare, minimalist
and intricate, finely crafted and yet
very instinctive, and I think I might just
listen to it once more after I write this.
-SINDRI ELDON
Tonik
Form Follows (2009)
tonikmusic
Not going to change the world,
but still pretty good.
+
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