Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.01.2013, Síða 18

AUSTURBAKKI 2 101 REYKJAVÍK MUNNHARPAN.IS
munnharpan@munnharpan.is +354 5285111
Munnharpan brasserie and café is located
at the main floor of Harpa concert hall and
conference centre
Why do some al-
bums not get the
love or credit they
deserve, while others go on to win mass
appeal, capture thousands of hearts and
gain untold accolades? Circumstances
must play a large part in this, some-
times the public is ready for a certain
kind of sound, sometimes there is a
space for a certain kind of artist. And
sometimes people just don’t notice.
We are once more going to recite
the now-cliché phrase “2012 was a
great year for Icelandic record releases”
(it was). And now we are going to tack
on: it is therefore inevitable that some
pretty goddamn great records got over-
looked or fall by the wayside, or at least
not heard by as many people as they
should have been.
There are several examples of this,
and we are made more aware by the fact
that the newspapers had, at the time of
our meeting, just released their year-
end lists. Glaring omissions of arguably
great records from folks such as Valgeir
Sigurðsson, Múgsefjun, Dream Cen-
tral Station, Sudden Weather Change,
Heavy Experience... (all names that got
thrown around in our discussion) are,
well, glaring.
We tackled this subject for quite a
while. What albums from 2012 should
people have paid more attention to?
What should they hurry up and go
listen to? Ultimately, we decided that
among many great and sort of over-
looked records, Skúli Sverrisson and
Óskar Guðjónsson’s ‘The Box Tree’ def-
initely warrants some of you seeking it
out and having a listen.
Like a lot of Skúli’s work, ‘The Box
Tree’ is a hypnotic and engaging affair
that bears repeated listening. Of course
this sort of music doesn’t appeal to ev-
eryone (music that appeals to everyone
is usually not very interesting anyway),
but once you let it sink in it can quickly
become an indispensable part of your
daily routine.
“The reason I keep coming back to
this one in our discussion,” one panel
member noted, “is that I, well, keep
coming back to it. There is something
rather magical about this record, a lot
of people could probably get a lot out
of it given the chance. The problem is
maybe that this kind of music usually
needs to be sought out. So here I am,
encouraging everyone to seek it out. It’s
awesome.”
The panel deems Skúli Sverrison
and Óskar Guðjónsson’s ‘The Box Tree’
to be a worthy holder of the title ‘MORE
PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE LOVED
THIS ALBUM IN 2012’. It is endear-
ing, deep, lush sounding and rewards
repeated listening. Give it a chance to
enhance your life, and it just might.
As we are meant to be servicing the
international community and telling it
about all of the wonderful music that’s
coming from Iceland, we sometimes
wish there were a way to instil in our
readers a sense of context and apprecia-
tion for how we got to where we are.
So, we thought we would go beyond
celebrating whatever happened in 2012
and having a sort of ‘legacy award,’
honouring and celebrating greatness in
our past. We thought: we should make
a BAND TO REMEMBER! category,
urging everyone to remember some
awesome band or musician and dig up
their music and give it a spin.
So we did.
And as soon as we decided to do
it (this was actually an idea from the
panel itself), we almost immediately
jumped on this chance to honour all
our childhood heroes Botnleðja (whom
some of you might at some point have
heard referred to as “Silt” when they
were opening up for Blur back in the
‘90s)!
Botnleðja burst onto the scene in
1995 when they won the Músíktil-
raunir battle of the bands. Apparently,
every teenager in the country taped
their grungy performance of three
tracks on the final night of the compe-
tition and for a lot of us the six or so
months that passed until they released
their proper studio début ‘Drullumall’
took an eternity to pass (the cassettes
were getting wobbly from being con-
stantly overplayed and dubbed)!
The Hafnarfjörður three-piece (con-
sisting of guitarist/vocalist Heiðar,
bassist Raggi and drummer Halli) had
a wonderful sort of appeal that fit right
into the climate of the time and seemed
designed to resonate with teenagers of
all ages. The music was grungy and me-
lodic like Nirvana, dreamy like Smash-
ing Pumpkins, quirky like Blur and
fiercely independent, tongue in cheek
and possessed a sense of humour for
itself that had hitherto been lacking in
Icelanders’ version of grunge. And they
sang in Icelandic, clever and colourful
lyrics, and they dressed cool and they
even seemed friendly.
They were a revelation.
A burst of garage bands followed in
the wake of Botnleðja, many of whom
evolved into some of the bands you love
to day (or at least ones that inf luenced
those bands). All the while Botnleðja
kept making great music, supplying us
with five awesome LPs before calling it
a day around a decade ago (which one
is the best of these is a highly debated
subject among Icelanders, but ‘Fólk er
fíf l,’ and ‘Magnýl’ are excellent starting
points).
Botnleðja made a brief comeback
in the summer of 2012 and played a
couple of shows to great acclaim. How-
ever, we feel like there should have
been more. They should have kept go-
ing a little, played a few more shows,
recorded a few new songs even.
Alas, they did not. But you should
most definitely still remember them.
The panel deems Botnleðja as A
BAND TO REMEMBER. Their music
shaped a generation of Icelanders, and
their impressive canon offers hours of
enjoyment. Go have a listen at Gogoyo-
ko if you don’t believe us. And thank
you, Botnleðja.
Most overlooked album
Skúli Sverrisson & Óskar
Guðjónsson – The Box Tree
The band to remember
Botnleðja

Th
e
Re
yk
jav
ík G
rapevine Music Aw
ards

BAND TO
REMEMBER
2012

Th
e
Re
yk
jav
ík G
rapevine Music Aw
ards

MOST OVERLOOKED
ALBUM
2012
Mareva Nardelli
18The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 1 — 2013