Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.11.2011, Side 16

SOME OF OUR
FAVOURITE
QUOTES AND
PHOTOS FROM
OUR
‘REVIEWS OF
EVERY SHOW!’
AT ICELAND
AIRWAVES 2K11
READ EVERY FUCKING THING AT WWW.AIRWAVES.GRAPEVINE.IS
"From the moment Bix hit the stage,
accompanied by a performance-art
mindfuck magician team and his
gang of zoological dance monsters,
my hips unlocked from their stand-
ing position and my feet didn’t fail to
follow. In that split second I ceased
to give a shit about everyone and
everything else around me and did
not stop dancing for the rest of the
night."
Rebecca Louder,
Put On My Raving Shoes And I
Boarded The Plane
(Faktorý Main, Friday)
"When Ólafur Arnalds starts play-
ing, all the lights go off. His sparse
piano, coupled with delicate and
minimal strings actually make for
a nice atmosphere… until his re-
tarded background projection
starts playing. It’s silhouettes of a
kid’s mobile slowly spinning, with
the animal shapes hanging on it de-
taching themselves one by one and
leaving, only to have them reattach
themselves at the end. What kind of
message is a human being sending
out by having this sickeningly ham-
handed and childish horseshit ac-
company his music? Is he some sort
of idiot? Or does he think we are?
I’d ask him, if I wasn’t so goddamn
certain the answers will infuriate me
even more than the questions."
Sindri Eldon,
The Night Of Meh
(Harpa Norðurljós, Saturday)
"While reviewing NASA on Sunday
of Airwaves last year, I made the
mistake of pre-emptively crowning
Dan Deacon the master of the elec-
tronic universe. After seeing Her-
migervill bust out something called
a theremin (it seems like I may be
the last person on earth to hear
about this), with which he expertly
produced electronic beats with his
bare hands—WITH HIS PHYSICAL
ENERGY—it became clear that he is
actually the closest thing to a mu-
sical mad scientist (shall we say,
genius?) that one can imagine. Her-
migervill is a national treasure, the
proprietor of some of the best beats
around—on his own albums as well
as that of other artists—in addition
to being the unofficial curator of a
few Icelandic pop classics, which he
has stripped down and rejuvenated
for our modern digestive pleasure.
The best thing about Hermigervill
is how crystal clear—and perfectly
simple!—his rhythms are; their ef-
fect on the audience being virtually
hypnotic, the crowd appearing as a
synchronized undulation of heads."
Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir,
Why Sunday Is The Best Night Of
Airwaves
(NASA, Sunday)
Cheek Mountain thief @ nasa By sigurður ástgeirsson
Endless Dark @ Gaukur á Stöng by
Alexander Matukhno
Dj AnDre at Faktorý by Aðalsteinn
Guðmundsson
Clock Opera @ NASA by Lukas Janicik
Samaris @ NASA by Aníta EldjárnYACHT @ NASA by Magnús Elvar Jóns-
son
Berndsen @ Nasa by Aníta EldjárnThorunn Antonía @ Tjarnabío Natsha
Nandabhiwat
Tune-yards @ Nasa by Óskar Hallgríms-
son
Crowd @ nasa By óskar hallgríMsson