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34 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 12 — 2012
Two Step Horror
Arnar Ástráðsson
Múgsefjun
Bad Sides & Rejects
2012
www.gogoyoko.com/artist/
thetwostephorror
Flat line generation
State Of Mind
2012
http://www.icelandicmusic.com/
Music/Album/906705/arnar_
astradsson/state_of_mind/
If Páll Óskar played any
of this at his Eurovision
parties, he would actually
get lynched.
Múgsefjun
2012
www.mugsefjun.is
“Progressive” pop that
adds way too much
unnecessary filler to the
mix
Really, if you call your album ‘Bad Sides & Rejects’ you’re setting
yourself up for a fall. Or a snarky review or two. Out extends my
leg for a metaphorical tripping then.
This is languid, gothy post-punk but the songs just don’t go
anywhere. They just exist, so linear and (sonically) flat that even builders
of Roman roads would be jealous. A soundtrack to malaise and teenage
ennui. It is a response to darkness and boredom, which is itself dark and
boring. Oh Two Step Horror (sung to the tune of “Vienna”), this doesn’t
do anything for me. It’s the expression of that which is inexpressible
through words.
This is average. Not bad, not good—none of the above. An
amorphous gloop of not much.
P.S. I quite like their ‘Living Room Music’ album. - CLYDE BRADFORD
Arnar Ástráðsson is a songwriter best known for having a
song, "Ástin Mín Eina" (‘My One And Only’), that reached the
Icelandic Eurovision finals in 2011. And whoo hoo, not only does
it appear on this, his debut album, he also has a “dance mix” version as
well. Oh... joy.
God this is a bad album. I mean really bad. Not even in a bad-but-
I-love tacky-bad-taste-shit-so-it’s-OK kind of bad. It took me several
attempts to get through this album, but I didn’t feel elation at the end of
it, only an empty sense of despair that some other poor bastard will end
up listening to this too.
With truly flat production and pedestrian chord progressions, the
most unforgivable thing is that most of his attempts at Robert Miles
Euro dance pop are just fucking boring. And when you actually resort to
ripping off the chorus from Sabrina’s “Boys Boys Boys,” as he does on
“Beautiful State Of Mind,” then there is a special place in Euro cack pop
hell waiting for you - BOB CLUNESS
Complexity and experimentalism in rock and pop are to be
enjoyed if done with the right level of panache and care
(Can, Radiohead, Ariel Pink and Sparks, are the first to spring
to mind). And Múgsefjun, on their self-titled second album, employ
numerous musical styles and rhythms, from plastic tango twists to Dikta-
style tub thumpers, often on the same song.
However, many of the song components on ‘Múgsefjun’ don’t flow
smoothly together, bolted with stylistic bells and whistles that don’t add
much to the songs themselves. “Þórðargleði” has an interesting guitar
riff that is plastered with jerky little interludes, while “Svona fer fyrir þeim
sem eru fyrir” actually has a lovely slow burning intro, before changing
its tone and mood so many times that you just give up on it in the end.
These guys are obviously talented musicians who know their
way around their instruments. And they can make nice tunes, from
the uplifting melody lines in “Sendlingur og sandlóa” to the ‘70s piano
punching soft rock of “Sitjum og bíðum.” But the feeling you get from
‘Múgsefjun’ is not one of new areas of pop being explored, but that of
an exercise in finicky craft, giving the impression that they’re merely
showing off their proficiency. - BOB CLUNESS
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