Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Qupperneq 23

Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Qupperneq 23
and a delicios lobster at Fjörubordid in Stokkseyri by the sea Sp ör e hf . - R ag nh ei ðu r Á gú st sd ót tir Reykjavík Downtown Hostel Reykjavík Downtown Hostel Vesturgata 17 ❚ 101 Reykjavík ❚ Tel. +354 553 8120 reykjavikdowntown@hostel.is Professional, friendly and passionate. We’ll be here, to arrange the most exciting excursions at the best price, and offer you local advice on how to get the most from your stay in this wonderful city. Your dream location in downtown Reykjavík One of the interesting things about Arkranes (apart from the road out of it) is the variety of music that is coming from there. Such as Worm is Green with their new album, Glow. Their downtempo electronic sound is reminiscent of Massive Attack and groups such as The Knife and Fever Ray. Whereas other Icelandic electro bands like Bloodgroup and FM Belfast aim to lift the spirit and get you moving, Glow feels more like the flipside of a weekend comedown in an abandoned farm on a snowy January morning. Their opening track “Hopeful,” for example, has an oppressive baseline that is lifted by the lilting vocals of singer Guðridur Ringsted. The rest of the album contains a mix of soft pianos, deep synths, minimal clicky percussion and whispered vocals. However there isn’t a lot of variety in the tracks and the album does feel to be stuck on the same tempo and minor key throughout. That’s not to say that it’s bad but sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to let the sunshine in and expand their sound. - BOB CLunESS On Ben Frost's new album, artwork and music unfolds like a Scandinavian thriller. Headlights claw their way into the nothingness, ambient werewolves slice through shadows and echo the nervous swells of secret instruments bark by guttural bark. Blood-soaked snowbanks feed crystallized plasma into porous ice. Ben's music has always been cinematic but lately he’s been ploughing into it with a mad fever. Between composing for miniseries and Australian thrillers, it seems he may be slipping away from us. It’s a pity, since he’s one of the most visual (and visceral) musicians working out of Iceland these days. If nature is a playground to Sigur Rós, then to Ben it’s a battlefield. His Iceland is the kind of arid plane where religion is born—desperate chants to smother an unforgiving climate. His music doesn't pulsate or tick—it flows and merges. It’s the sound of clenching and unclenching, of tension and release. Sounds are fed, sustained and brought to slaughter. - RAGnAR EGILSSOn GusGus Lady and Bird Caterpillarmen Stereo Hypnosis Worm is Green Ben Frost 24/7 (2009) La Ballade of Lady and Bird (2009) Adopt a Monkey (2009) Hypnogogia (2009) Glow (2009) By The Throat (2009) wormisgreen An album that’s moody, dark and loves to stay there... theghostofbenfrost On By The Throat, artwork and music unfolds like a Scandinavian thriller. The core members of GusGus have ruled the Icelandic club scene for an obscenely long time (15 years?). And the miraculous thing is that they've stayed that course without altering their sound nor updating their image in any significant way. The sound that started out cutting-edge, became de- pendable and finally retro devil-may- care with their 2002 parasol-pink drug- pop-meisterwerk Attention, managing to sidestep the purgatory of obligatory embarrassing obsolescence. But with their recent move to Kom- pakt it seems they felt the need to impress their po-faced brethren with lacklustre results. I applaud them try- ing out new things; the male catalogue model image is spot on, and on-and- off member Daníel Ágúst is still is a masterful singer. But the ratio of play- ful to stern is off, and they come off as distant. Where are the grooves? Even Add This Song takes off as a rohypnol rager but peters out into the krautrock swamps that seem to claim most musi- cians eventually. 24/7 is a hit-and-miss attempt at following the experimental sideroads of their first album and finding that they double back to a giant neon sign point- ing at Nasa, saying "GusGus – stop fid- dling and get back to dominating!” - RAGnAR EGILSSOn gusgus Saying that the GusGus party has come to an end would be premature and unfair, but this is still their weakest record to date. Lady and Bird is the collaborative project of singer-songwriter Keren Ann Zeidel and Barði Jóhannsson of Bang Gang. Their latest album is taken from a live concert they performed with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra in 2008, and contains both original compositions and reworked tracks form Bang Gang’s latest album, Ghosts From The Past. The result is a mix of lush, textured pop songs that gain an extra dimension from having the weight of a full orchestra behind them. Old tracks such as One More Trip sound like adult fairytales with a large streak of melancholy, while the opening track Malmo Lives wouldn’t sound out of place in a Pedro Almodovar thriller. There are one or two flat moments though. Sailor and Widow, for example, has a Beatles style “oompah” chorus that makes me fast forward to the next track. Overall, however, this is a great album for losing yourself on a winter’s night. Possibly naked with chocolate smeared over yourself, although that’s optional... - BOB CLunESS There are some truly evil people out there. You had a man Like Josef Fritzl who kept his daughter and their children hidden from the world in a basement for eighteen years. And there is apparently a monster in Reykjavík right now who kidnapped 4 young men from birth, kept them in a basement and only gave them access to early Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Can records. The bastard must be stopped! But as for his “victims,” they became Caterpillarmen and they´ve created their debut EP. To say it reeks of late 60s/early 70s prog rock would be a massive understatement. With sprawling Hammond organs, spidery guitar lines and a thumping bass, it creates a weirdly British picture of old BBC children’s programmes, occult Aristocracy and psychedelic tea. That’s not to say it´s perfect. Some of the songs have some jarring changes in pace and tone. Now The Man Can Can Can’t Not Cat should have been split into two songs. And the 12 minute opus of Idle Hands/Monkey See, Monkey Do doesn’t really sound OPUS enough to grab me. But wait ‘til these guys discover 70s Krautrock and Komische. They ŕe going to blow our fucking heads off! - BOB CLunESS Father-son duo Stereo Hypnosis was formed in 2006 by Jafet Melge (Óskar Thorarensen) and Beatmakin' Troopa (Pan Thorarensen). The pair are based in the remote island of Flatey in Breiðafjörður, where they mix and record their music. This latest offering of theirs offers an almost abstract experience. Ambient, at times bordering on dark, there is an elusive quality to the music that makes it difficult to pin down. It is nonetheless an interesting album, progressing slowly but surely across the flat plains of some enigmatic other world. The outfit's name, Stereo Hypnosis, is very apt, as although their music is down tempo, there is something mysteriously compelling about it, which keeps it engrossing. It could be the combination of slow, rhythmic beats with a measured progression of carefully woven samples and loops, or the way that one track slides almost seamlessly into the next. If you want something very earthy and down- tempo to listen to, give it a go. - BERGRún AnnA HALLSTEInSDóTTIR ladyandbirdband Intimate songs with a rich, big sound on top. stereohypnosis Best enjoyed whilst lying on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Available via www.Gogoyoko.com Iceland in Psychedelic Monkey Trafficking Shock Horror! Music | Album Reviews The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 17 — 2009 13

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