Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.02.2010, Qupperneq 24

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02 — 2010
24
The History of Icelandic Rock Music | Part 15 Music | CD Reviews
In the seventies, Icelandic progressive
folk music was mainly taken care of by
two bands, Spilverk þjóðanna ("Plaything
of the Nations") and Þursaflokkurinn
("Band of Titans"). It all started in leg-
endarily artsy college MH, which would
later become the breeding ground for
lots of other bands. Spilverk þjóðanna,
or Spilverkið as the band was normally
called, started playing in 1972 but re-
leased its eponymous debut in 1975 (also
nicknamed “The Brown Album” as it
came in a brown paper sleeve). The al-
bum was recorded in the recently opened
Hljóðriti studio in Hafnarfjörður, the first
real studio in Iceland.
The three core members—Valgeir
Guðjónsson, Egill Ólafsson and Sigurður
Bjóla—were also active in Stuðmenn at
the time (see chapter 13). For the first
Spilverk album, a fellow MH student,
Sigrún “Diddú” Hjálmtýsdóttir, had been
added to the band. She is the older sister
of Icelandic gay superstar Páll Óskar and
the fourth member of Spilverkið who had
a mother named Margrét!
Spilverk’s music started out as laid-
back folk, but got more rock heavy as the
years wore on. The band played a lot in
colleges, which were places that hadn’t
been used for gigs up to that time. The
next album came in 1976, and was re-
corded live with an audience and still the
lyrics were in English. The bands mem-
bers had high hopes for foreign record
deals and prosperity abroad and sang
English on the first two albums. The sec-
ond album was called CD (Nærlífi)—or
the “Blue album”—and featured really
laidback tunes for the most part. It didn’t
do nearly as well as Spilverk’s first album,
which had been a hit.
1976 was a hectic year. Stuðmenn
released their second album (Tívolí) and
Spilverkið made their third one. It was
called Götuskór (Street shoes) and was
released just before Christmas. Now the
band sang in Icelandic, as all hopes of
popularity abroad had been given up.
“They only wanted some ABBA-stuff,”
Egill said of the foreign moguls. “We can
do much better things here in our own
environment.” This was true, because as
soon as the band started to sing in Ice-
landic the masterpieces started to flow.
Sturla, released in the summer of
1977, is considered to be the best Spilverk
album. Some of the songs came from a
teen play, Grænjaxlar, which the band
wrote music for, but others were writ-
ten especially for the album. The band
had never been as hard rocking. Electric
instruments made an appearance and
Sigurður Bjóla had bought a drum kit.
The humorous lyrics squeezed zits on the
face of the national spirit. The band had a
left-wing spirit to it, and sang anti-songs
about things that bothered lefties at the
time: The giant aluminium factory at
Straumsvík, the right wing prime minister
(nicknamed “Geiri Smart” on the album’s
most popular song, Sirkus Geira Smart),
the American navy base and how some
Icelanders got wealthy licking Yankee
arse. “We probably get on many people’s
nerves for being commies, even though
we are not commies, even though we are
commies,” Valgeir said cryptically at the
time of release.
Right after Sturla—which has since
become known as one of the best Ice-
landic albums ever—the Spilverk mem-
bers started working with singer/song-
writer Megas on another album that is
also known for being amongst the top
Icelandic albums, Á bleikum náttkjólum
(“Wearing a pink nightgown”). The first
two certifiable Icelandic punk songs are
on the album, along with many other
unforgettable masterpieces. In 1977, the
muse was especially favourable to those
guys, as they were also involved in mak-
ing the Hrekkjusvín (“Bullies”) children’s
album, which had an adult overtone and
is presumably the best Icelandic chil-
dren’s album ever. In 2009, when a list of
the 100 best Icelandic albums ever was
published in a book, all three of the 1977
Spilverk’s related albums were on Top 20:
Á bleikum náttkjólum at #3, Sturla at #10
and Hrekkjusvín at #17.
So where do you go after you have
reached the peak? Down of course. Or
not. By the end of 1977 Egill Ólafsson split
Spilverkið to form another band, which
was to become Þursaflokkurinn. The old
Icelandic ethnic folk music had tickled his
interest and he wanted to do something
with it—“make it rock!”
Egill’s split from Spilverk þjóðanna was
not altogether painless, but the remaining
Spilverk members nevertheless soldiered
on, making two more albums, Ísland in
1978 and Bráðabirgðabúgí (“Temporary
Boogie”) in 1979. Soon after that, the
band split for good as both Valgeir and
Diddú were going abroad to further their
studies. The band has rarely made come-
backs since, but the albums live on and
continue getting new audiences. Later
Valgeir was to make his mark on Icelan-
dic music as a member of Stuðmenn in
the eighties and nineties, but Diddú is a
renowned opera singer and quite well
known in Russia as of late.
Þursaflokkurinn’s brew of old Icelan-
dic folk influences and progressive mu-
sic (think Jethro Tull and the Dutch band
Focus) hit paydirt. The band’s epony-
mous debut was voted album of the year
in 1978, and the following album, 1979’s
Þursabit, received an equally raving re-
ception. The band played frequently and
went abroad and did the longest foreign
tour any Icelandic band had done to date.
The band was good and tight after all
this, so it came natural to record a live
album in 1980 at the National Theatre.
Þursaflokkurinn was the first band ever
to play there.
Next up was a stint at the play Grettir
and in 1981 the band built its own stu-
dio, Grettisgat. There the band recorded
its third studio album, Gæti eins verið
(“Might as well be”). Now the folk influ-
enced had largely been swapped for new
wave-ish synth pop influences. The band
started working on a yet another album,
but that never came out as the old joke
band Stuðmenn was about to take over
everybody’s time (Þursaflokkurinn’s Egill,
Ásgeir, Tommi and Þórður all played in
Stuðmenn too). Þursaflokkurinn has had
various comebacks since, the greatest
one in 2008 when the band played with
the Caput Ensemble at Laugardalshöll
and released all their albums in a box set
featuring one disc of unreleased material.
- DR. GunnI
By Dr. Gunni, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki
allir í stuði? (Rock in Iceland). A revised update
of the book is forthcoming in 2010.
1. Þursar doing their folkish prog-
new wave ca. 1981.
2. Spilverkið ca. 1977: Egill, Diddú,
Sigurður and Valgeir.
Unlike the national potato harvest,
2009 saw Iceland produce a glut of
releases from Electronic pop/dance
acts. But with so many contemporaries
sporting drum machines as
accessories, it can certainly be difficult
to get oneself noticed amongst all
the synthesizer noise. Berndsen will
certainly attract a lot of attention
from his style. From the Ginger beard,
sequined headband and Day-Glo pink
outfit he sports on the album sleeve,
Berndsen looks every inch like a
transgendered womble.
Alas, I wish his music was as
striking as his Cosplay attire. His
debut album is chock full with retro
synthpop and sparkly smiley shit. And
yes, the corrosive abhorrence that is
Supertime is on here too. The problem
is that most of it is just too superficial
and light and positively wilts when you
compare it to the competition. There
are a couple of high notes. Both Lover
in the Dark and Dark Times are good
strong pop tunes. But the rest of it will
only grab people who still go wet for
Morten Hagens dressed in PVC.
- BOB CLunESS
Surprise, the third long player from
singer Lára Rúnarsdóttir is—contrary
to what the title might suggests—a
rather unsurprising affair. The album
presents an array of radio-friendly pop
numbers that sound inoffensive and
digestible. While it (fortunately) doesn't
fall into the dull rut of easy listening
drivel, there is nothing new going on
here, either. Which is OK. Just not
particularly surprising.
Comparisons to the likes of Feist
or even Tori Amos might be made,
especially because of the slightly
more complex (than your average
pop album) sound of her backing
music. Lára is clearly pretty talented
musically, apparent by her playing on
the piano and guitar as well as having
a strong singing voice, even if sounds
a little thin at times. Minus points go
to her songwriting though, and for
her repeated use of the puerile and
irritating word 'tits' in the track Honey,
You're Gay! On the whole, the album is
OK, not great, lacking in some mystery
element that could move it to the next
level. Worth checking out, but don't
expect to be surprised.
- BERGRún AnnA
HALLSTEInSDóTTIR
Berndsen Lára
Lover in the Dark (2009) Surprise (2009)
theberndsen
Superfluous electro twiddle with
some tassels covering its shame.
lararunars
Last Word: Unsurprising
The Foghorns
A Diamond As Big As The
Motel 6 (2009)
The boy Bart Cameron and friends
return with an album that manages to
simultaneously inhabit a Midwestern,
dusty landscape and poke the genre
with sticks til it twitches and grunts
with irritation. There are many
moments of self-searching on here,
wry without a hint of forced nakedness
generally, including the solo I Hope
I Don’t Do You Wrong – timeless
sentiments with suitably unpolished
guitarwork underpinning them. When
in duet with Katie Quigley there’s a hint
of Cowboy Junkies to matters; Sleepy
Waltz or the excellent Old Bachelors
In Cleveland could be taken directly
off The Trinity Sessions, for one, such
are their simple, easy-resonant shuffly
soul. Highlight of the lot might just be
80 Proof, a song that commences with
an excited heartbeat and early-evening
saunter and winds its winsome way
around in a hazy shimmer, belying a
seriously swiney tale of alcoholism..
- JOE SHOOMAn
thefoghorns
Woozy alt.folk from an old
compadre
The Progressive Folk
Rock Brigade