Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.07.2011, Blaðsíða 32

Reykjavík Grapevine - 29.07.2011, Blaðsíða 32
32 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 11 — 2011 Laugavegur Bankastræti Hverfisgata Læ kja rg at a Pó st hú ss træ ti Vonarstræti Austurstræti HafnarstrætiAð al st ræ ti Geirsgata Harpa Tryggvagata G ar ða st ræ ti Find us at: Tryggvagata 11, 101 Reykjavík EXPERIENCE THE FORCE OF NATURE Our two excellent films on eruptions in Iceland start on the hour every hour. The films are shown in english except at 09:00 and 21:00 when they are in german. Volcano House also has an excellent café, Icelandic design shop and booking service for travels within Iceland. Opening hours: 8:30 - 23:00 www.volcanohouse.is Music | Reviews What is evident about Mr Jónsson is that he has absolutely impeccable taste. The title track's acoustic spins on The Beatles' ‘Blackbird,’ ‘Ocean Girl’ kicks off with the descending riff from the verses of ‘Dear Prudence,’ also by The Beatles of course and there's a heart-sinking moment at the outset of ‘To Her’ where for a split second it seems like JJ's going to launch into ‘You've Gotta Hide Your Love Away.’ By The Beatles. But let's get one thing clear: this boy can sing and his vocals are of that lovely come-hither richness that slides this debut album into the middle of the pop arena, on a wave of gushing oestrogen from his audience. There's no reason with his nicey-wicey acous- tically Maroon-y 5-ey melodies and good looks he can't have a chance in the mainstream. He knows how to (re) write a song, and when the emotions are real it's really emotional. ‘Ocean Girl’ turns out to be an excellent thick- textured piece with a crescendo build- ing up to a very satisfying coda, and final track ‘Miss You So’ is genuinely moving. Although to be fair, it sounds suspiciously like ‘Easy Like Sunday Morning.’ By The Commodores. - JOE SHOOMAN Jón Jónsson Wait For Fate jonjonsson A study in musical memetics. Spacevestite Spacevestite spacevestite Stay off the brown acid maaaaaaaan... Today the sun is shining, people are smiling and the birds are singing. But sod that, because the doom-meister from Dalvík is back! Dathi’s latest album continues where he left off at his last one, ‘Self Portrait,’ by plough- ing the lonely furrow of being Iceland’s only true exponent of apocalyptic folk. His lyrics have become even more doom-laden, brutal and pitiless. With titles such as ‘Killing Me,’ ‘Self Abuse’ and ‘Please Help Me Now,’ I’m actually starting to be concerned for this guy’s mental health. Ironically, his music and songcraft have gotten better. Although his voice sometimes falters on the long notes (such as on ‘Buried Alive’), the music has a soft soothing feeling, with simple plucked acoustic guitar and occa- sional trumpet and accordion sound drifting in an out like so many bad memories. I’m sure people will balk at the truly suicidal tone of his music, but come the clusterfucks of Menningarnótt and Verslunarmannahelgi, you’ll be beg- ging for this as your soundtrack! - BOB CLUNESS Dathi Dark Days www.dnj-records.com Don’t fight it. Just let go. Head towards the light and it’ll all be over soon What do you do when you want to get stoned and lost on a beach in Cali- fornia in the sixties but you are stuck in Hafnarfjörður? I don’t know, but if the end result is the self-titled album by Spacevestite, I’d seriously consider laying off that shit. How do we start? Is it the band’s name, with its obvious and laboured hints at deviance? Or could it be their sound, trying to be swirling, psychedelic pop, but with annoying keyboards, Mick Jagger impersonation vocals, and production that makes it sound like a busted fly in a tin can? Or perhaps it’s the corny and hack- neyed ideas of what psychedelia is supposed to be, from their song titles (‘Sexedelic Dance Party’) to their lyrics (“I am stone away from home/ when I’m in the twilight stone.” Really? I mean, REALLY?). Basically this is an album from people who want to be all groovy and sexy, but only learned psychedelia from watching Austin Powers movies. We put Kula Shaker to the sword for crap like this, so I see no reason to stop right now. - BOB CLUNESS The Radical Summer Univer- sity, organised by a group of leftists from academia and activist groups, will take place in August with a wide variety of workshops on different topics, from grass roots publishing to Marxism, psychoanalysis and radical feminism. Blogger and pundit Egill Helgason remarked that this was great news because Icelandic leftists had often confused nationalism with radicalism. Indeed, this is important news. It is a sign of the growing vitality and strength of left wing activism in Ice- land, and it demonstrates that at least part of it is rediscovering what ‘radical- ism’ means. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, many believed that leftist politics and all leftist ideology had been com- pletely discredited. The ‘third way’ was king and men like Tony Blair seemed like the future of the left. In Iceland, this process appeared in the formation of the Social Demo- cratic Alliance out of the two left wing parties, the heirs to the Socialist Party, the People’s Alliance, and the Social Democratic People’s Party, as well as the Women's List, a feminist party and The Nationalist Movement, a splinter group of the People's Alliance. The new party followed a classic centrist ‘third way’ policy. A few left- ists refused to join, forming the Left Greens. And since the new Social Democratic Alliance was not really a leftist party, the Left Greens were re- ally the only Icelandic left wing party. But it was not a very radical party. And since it came to power follow- ing the financial crash it has shown a remarkable lack of ideological vision. Even if a handful of its MPs have dem- onstrated that they have a grasp of left wing ideology, the party leadership has by and large failed to provide any kind of, well leadership, when it comes to ideology. What it has demonstrated is that it is good at management. The party chair- man, Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, has been able to get state finances under control. Judging by the price of Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Icelandic government bonds, a mea- surement frequently cited by Sigfús- son himself, the government has been pretty successful. At the end of June they were down to 240 points, the level they were at in early 2008, down from the 1000 of early 2009, and well below the cost of CDSs on many other West- ern European countries, meaning that international capital markets have a pretty favorable view of Icelandic state finances. But as the party of the left, the Left Greens must point to something apart from competent management or its ability to please the global capital mar- ket. Many of its supporters seem to be- lieve this ‘something’ is the fact that the party is denying the Conservatives a grip on power. In fact, the one overrid- ing concern of many of its most ardent supporters seems to be that the con- servatives must be kept out of power. Sure, one can make the argument that by this the Left Greens are deny- ing the Conservatives the opportunity to wreak further havoc. But denying another party access to power this is still very poor justification for a political party because at the end of the day it is politics for the sake of power. So, the party appears to offer only two things: competent leadership and the fact that they are not the conserva- tive party. But no positive vision for the future. What the party elite and its most dedicated supporters do not seem to understand is that a chief strength of the conservative party is the fact that it has an ideology. This ideology, centered around neoliberal economic policies, inspires an active radical base and provides the actions of the party with purpose and direction. While its politics have been focused on gain- ing, maintaining and then using power, it has also been infused with a strong ideological vision. Now unless the Icelandic left wants to move to the center, it is probably stuck with the Left Greens as its only alternative to the Conservatives, or the only available vehicle to fight against right wing laissez fare economic poli- cies. But if this party has no ideology or vision, it will never offer much of an alternative; in order to be a real alter- native, the left has to be able to offer a real alternative vision! And this means a left wing ideology, which the institu- tional left in Iceland appears to lack. Of course it would be silly to expect that a leftist summer university in radi- calism will change this as most of the attendees will already be committed radicals. But, it is nonetheless an im- portant first step toward an ideological awakening on the left. Opinion | Magnús Sveinn Helgason A Lesson In Radicalism
Blaðsíða 1
Blaðsíða 2
Blaðsíða 3
Blaðsíða 4
Blaðsíða 5
Blaðsíða 6
Blaðsíða 7
Blaðsíða 8
Blaðsíða 9
Blaðsíða 10
Blaðsíða 11
Blaðsíða 12
Blaðsíða 13
Blaðsíða 14
Blaðsíða 15
Blaðsíða 16
Blaðsíða 17
Blaðsíða 18
Blaðsíða 19
Blaðsíða 20
Blaðsíða 21
Blaðsíða 22
Blaðsíða 23
Blaðsíða 24
Blaðsíða 25
Blaðsíða 26
Blaðsíða 27
Blaðsíða 28
Blaðsíða 29
Blaðsíða 30
Blaðsíða 31
Blaðsíða 32
Blaðsíða 33
Blaðsíða 34
Blaðsíða 35
Blaðsíða 36
Blaðsíða 37
Blaðsíða 38
Blaðsíða 39
Blaðsíða 40
Blaðsíða 41
Blaðsíða 42
Blaðsíða 43
Blaðsíða 44
Blaðsíða 45
Blaðsíða 46
Blaðsíða 47
Blaðsíða 48
Blaðsíða 49
Blaðsíða 50
Blaðsíða 51
Blaðsíða 52
Blaðsíða 53
Blaðsíða 54
Blaðsíða 55
Blaðsíða 56
Blaðsíða 57
Blaðsíða 58
Blaðsíða 59
Blaðsíða 60
Blaðsíða 61
Blaðsíða 62
Blaðsíða 63
Blaðsíða 64
Blaðsíða 65
Blaðsíða 66
Blaðsíða 67
Blaðsíða 68
Blaðsíða 69
Blaðsíða 70
Blaðsíða 71
Blaðsíða 72

x

Reykjavík Grapevine

Beinir tenglar

Ef þú vilt tengja á þennan titil, vinsamlegast notaðu þessa tengla:

Tengja á þennan titil: Reykjavík Grapevine
https://timarit.is/publication/943

Tengja á þetta tölublað:

Tengja á þessa síðu:

Tengja á þessa grein:

Vinsamlegast ekki tengja beint á myndir eða PDF skjöl á Tímarit.is þar sem slíkar slóðir geta breyst án fyrirvara. Notið slóðirnar hér fyrir ofan til að tengja á vefinn.