Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2011, Side 24

24
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2011
Music | Reviews
Steve Sampling’s trip-tastic journey
through his magical adventure world of
drum patterns, random delay effects,
airtight compression and—you guessed
it—oodles upon oodles of samples is
light, accessible and enjoyable, which
isn’t necessarily a good thing, mind
you. The album gets a bit too ‘easy
listening’ sometimes, with ‘Distorted
Contact’ sounding like something you
might hear in a vegan coffee shop.
But for the most part it remains tacitly
elusive, wafting through the air like the
cloud of bong smoke it was presum-
ably composed to.
- SINDRI ELDON
Steve Sampling
The Optimist
stevesampling
Could have used a little pessimism,
but still pretty damn good
Svartidauði have made unpleasantries
their business for some time now. But
despite a loyal cult following, they’ve
hardly been prolific. In times when a
large number of black metal bands
are trying to not sound black metal,
Svartidauði revels in what once pushed
people away and certainly did not
recruit hipsters in droves.
Barbaric and thoughtful at the same
time, it’s in the latter that they have
subtly elevated themselves above
genre standards while remaining true
to some of the conventions that made
black metal one of the unfriendliest
forms of music. The difference is in the
layering of discordant chord-tones and
simple yet organic drums. All of which
compliment one another to create a
methodical whole.
There’s a tangible love for the craft of
black metal but not a forced break-
away from it. Self-destruction and mis-
anthropy run amok. Either you choose
to endure it or get the hell out of the
kitchen before you get hurt.
- BIRKIR FJALAR VIðARSSON
Svartidauði
Temple Of Deformation
svartidaudi
The hard-to-find 2006 recording
finally gets a proper release
IDTABM reaches far and wide in its
attempts to balance playful flute frolics
and dark, sombre horns, and Muhly
has created a piece that, while ostensi-
bly a soundtrack to a visual work, also
functions fairly well as a darkly atmo-
spheric work in its own right. There are
hiccups, of course; while ‘Music For
Boys’, ‘Jagged Pulses’ and ‘Fire Down
Below’ are as enthralling rhythmically
as they are sonically, other tracks, such
as the jauntily modern ‘Varied Carols’,
fail to go anywhere interesting, and the
pretentious quirkiness of ‘Music Under
Pressure’ and ‘Salty Dog’ is just plain
annoying. Sometimes these extremes
can even be found in the confines of
the same track, with ‘Storm Centre’
and ‘First Storm’ veering wildly from
awesome, brooding minimalism to
lacklustre frivolity. All in all, it makes
for an enticing listen, if a slightly un-
even one, and could easily be Muhly’s
most mature work to date.
- SINDRI ELDON
Nico Muhly
I Drink The Air Before Me
www.nicomuhly.com
You’ll neither laugh nor cry, but you’ll
seriously consider doing both
Pósthússtræti 13
101 Reykjavík
Tel: +354 551 1800
www.gamla.is
Geysir Fact #3
Cheap Cars
www.geysir.is
In some places in
Polynesia it was
common to play
synchronous music in
order to terrify the enemy
in warfare. The music would
indicate how well they were
organized. An organised
army is efficient and effec-
tive. If there is a clear pulse
it synchronises with a mas-
ter, a top of the hierarchy.
The marching band is a group that is to
be used in warfare. As any other part
of a military it has (or had) a strategic
role. In some cases for instance, a mili-
tary force would attack a city and the
marching band came afterwards. The
people of the city, who had perhaps
never heard this kind of music before,
were terrified. Hearing the loud syn-
chronous sound of a marching band
would be terrifying and additionally the
people of the city would imagine that
even more soldiers would follow the
marching band and resistance would
be futile.
Governments like to use festivities,
science and art to remind people of
their power. One clear example of this
was the “space race” in the cold war.
In the field of music, any well-trained
army of people will remind one of the
efficiency and organisation of the so-
ciety. That way a symphony orchestra,
for instance, has a clear militaristic role.
It is a well-trained and efficient army of
people that follows one ruler and ex-
ecutes very complicated tasks in great
detail in perfect timing. Each and every
member is aware of the strategic plan
and has a chart with a two-dimensional
graph or a grid, an action plan, that is
very rigid and exact.
In a country that has no military,
like Iceland, one might wonder what
is the strategic task of these kinds of
forces. Is it simply to be like everyone
else? To have a Nike store because
everyone else does? Or is it perhaps
a business-oriented goal of giving the
signal: “We are a European society
and very cultured, disciplined and ef-
ficient.” In order to give a clear signal
you need to speak a language some-
body understands. In order to have a
competition the rules must be clear and
standardised. In order to enter a world
competition you must submit to those
rules. That way international conduc-
tors and soloists can make their regular
special appearances, just like single
functional objects can be replaced in
a machine. They travel between similar
institutions doing their art as well as
making sure everything is right in every
corner of the world. This way orches-
tras all across the world work together,
synchronised.
Synchronicity
Opinion | Music
GUðMUNDUR STEINN GUNNARSSON
LAURI RANTALA
Guðmundur Steinn Gunnarsson is a composer and a member of
cool musical organisation S.L.Á.T.U.R. (www.slatur.is)