Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.10.2010, Blaðsíða 32

18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 16 — 2010
Music | Live review
We have well over thirty tracks of the issue this time! FANCY THAT!
I didn’t expect to see fourteen musi-
cians on stage, a mind-boggling array
of instruments and an audience rang-
ing from rock royalty to little old ladies,
but that’s what I got at Amiina’s album
release concert at NASA earlier this
month. Debuting songs from their sec-
ond album ‘puzzle’ on home soil, the
band played to an almost full house,
sprinkled with more gods and goddess
of the Icelandic music scene than sugar
on a doughnut.
It was up to Sin Fang’s (they’ve
dropped the Bous) eclectic musical styl-
ings to warm up the gathering crowd.
While frontman Sindri Már Sigfússon
kept his presence low-key, his thought-
ful lyrics and charmingly ramshackle
electro-acoustic compositions seemed
to rouse the audience. Signing off with
the upbeat ‘Clangour And Flutes,’ it was
time for Amiina to rock up and do their
thing.
Almost instantaneously, the eerie
electronic hum of the albums opening
track ‘ásinn’ silenced the bustle, and
within minutes the hypnotic beat and
spine-tingling strains of the accordion
seemed to grip the room. Aside from,
funnily enough, fudging the timing on
the intro to ‘what are we waiting for?’,
the six-piece settled into their rhythm,
absorbing themselves among the colli-
sion of drums, keyboards, violins, xylo-
phones and saws. For the first twenty
minutes, you could have heard a pin
drop in each momentary pause before
the audience broke into whoops and
whistles.
Midway through the vibe changed,
the audience came back to earth, shuf-
fling about and breaking for a ciga-
rette. The band took the opportunity
and gathered themselves, Sin Fang and
guests on stage and treated us to a
beautiful performance of ‘in the sun’. It
was a really special moment, and every-
one seemed to love it. Between the lovey
dovey couples swaying to the gentle vio-
lins on ‘thoka’, and the groups of friends
giggling through the uplifting rhythms of
‘púsl’ it felt more like being in a cosy liv-
ing room than a big club.
What’s so interesting about Amiina’s
live performances is the sheer amount of
instrumentation these ladies and gents
manage to pack in on stage. They rotate
seamlessly between roles; the keyboard
player becomes the xylophonist, the vio-
linist becomes the zither player and so
on. The only one who had to keep his
seat all night was the drummer, Magnús.
When you see a live band create such a
multitude of sounds across such a broad
(and kinda bizarre) spectrum of instru-
ments, it’s hard not to respect them for
it, regardless of whether or not their mu-
sic is your bag.
As they pulled people back into the
ether with the much darker, more dra-
matic sound on ‘sicsak’, the progression
Amiina have made between their two
records seemed strikingly clear. Sure,
the violin twiddles and melodic waves
on Kurr were gorgeous, but they’re not
half as affecting as their more recent ef-
forts.
So justly confident are the band in
their newer material that, for the encore,
they rounded off proceedings with an-
other rendition of ‘in the sun’, albeit on
a smaller scale. They seemed really
pleased with the overwhelming positive
reaction from the crowd, and skipped
off stage happy as pigs in the proverbial.

Second Coming
Here’s what’s on the comp:
Æla – Hent'essu í mig // Klink – Death By Auto // Hjaltalín
– Suitcase Man (Gísli Galdur Remix) // Stafrænn Hákon –
Val Kilmer // Endless Dark – Cold Hard December (radio
version) // For a Minor Reflection – Flóð // Saytan – Cub //
Momentum – As The Skies Break // Zach and Foes – Back
to Egypt // Markús & The Diversion Sessions – Stay //
kimono – Kente // Biggibix – Run Away // Ólafur Arnalds
– Hægt kemur ljósið // Nóra – Skóflaðu mér // Moses
Hightower – Vandratað // My Summer As A Salvation Sol-
dier – How Are You? // Miri – Ég á heima á Íslandi // Útidúr
– Killer On The Run // Fist Fokkers – Hysteria (ruff–mix) //
Swords of Chaos – Ill–gotten Gains // Morðingjarnir – Flót-
tinn mikli // LAZYBLOOD – Once Upon A Time (demo) //
Sudden Weather Change – The Whaler // Dikta – Goodbye
// Sindri Eldon – 30 Seconds // S.H. Draumur – Glæpur
gegn ríkinu // Feldberg – In Your Arms // Reykjavík! – Cats
// FM Belfast – President // Benni Hemm Hemm – FF ekki
CC //Retro Stefson – Kimba // Quadruplos – Mandaranda
// Prinspóló – Niðrá strönd // There are a few more, too!
Boy. Goddamn Airwaves. Got us so excited that we couldn’t stick to
just having a track of the issue. Nope. We had to go all in and make
a super special AIRWAVES COMPILATION for y’all. It’s a monster,
too. It has over thirty tracks of fresh and excellent Icelandic music
from some of our favourite Airwaves acts of 2010 (not all of them,
but a lot of them).
Here’s what you do:
1) Download that handy .zip folder RIGHT NOW on
www.grapevine .is
2) Unzip it and burn the tracks onto some CDs (you’ll need more
than one) or upload them to your mp3 player.
3) There’s even a cool cover included, designed by our very own
Páll Hilmarsson. You can print that out, if you want to get crafty.
4)
5) PROFIT!
Grapevine Airwaves 2010 compilation
TRACk Cd Of THE ISSuE
Download the FREE compilation at www.grapevine.is
COMPILATION
OF
THE ISSUE
Download your
free copy at
grapevine.is
Amiina wow the crowd with a thumbs up Icelandic debut of ‘puzzle’
EIMEAR fITzGERALd
HVALREkI
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For booking and further information:
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vikings@vikingvillage.is - www.vikingvillage.is
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Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
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Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
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List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
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visiticeland.com
www.yummiyummi.net
Smaralind
5544-633
and
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# 123
588-2121
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