Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2013, Page 37

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Reykjavík · Engjateigur 19 and Laugavegur 20b · Hafnarfjörður · Strandgata 34 · www.glo.is
This is Solla Eiriksdottir, the winner
of Best Gourmet Raw Chef and Best
Simple Raw Chef in the 2011 and
2012 “Best of Raw” Awards. Come and try out one
of her great dishes at her restaurant Gló.
Samaris
Hymnalaya
Nico Muhly
Stofnar Falla EP
2012
www.samaris.is
More historical folk music for a
dystopian future
Hymns
2013
www.hymnalayamusic.com
If you can climb past the piety,
Hymnalaya have some winning
tunes for you at the summit
Drones And Viola
2012
www.nicomuhly.com
Two outta three ain’t bad.
On their second EP, young trio
Samaris further develop their dys-
topian folk sound. The palette is
similar—clarinet, breathy vocals,
dark Icelandic folk melodies with
folkloric lyrics—all held together
with electronic beats, bass and
synths. It’s a move away from the
dubstep leanings of their debut
towards a more straightforward
and minimal rhythm structure.
I was not familiar with Samaris's
previous EP when I first listened to
Religion and "rock 'n' roll" are
uneasy bedfellows. It seems fair to
say that most Christian bands don't
shout about their religion from the
rooftops. From Low to Owl City to
Belle & Sebastian, religion is often
‘Drones And Viola’ is the second of
three releases in Muhly’s “Drones”
series. It again features Bruce
Brubaker on piano, this time accom-
A
lb
um
Review
s
this one. And, although sort of amaz-
ing, ‘Stofnar Falla’ is not quite as
captivating as their debut. I attribute
this mostly to the programming and
processing which conjured striking
walls of haze in both "Hljóma þú" and
"Góða tungl," but feels a bit more
generic this time round.
The best tracks here are "Vög-
guDub,” (“CradleDub”) a spaced
out track with lush pads and micro-
scopic vocal snippets. The melody
constantly winds around itself
before introducing a beautiful har-
mony. When the sub-bass drops
and the clarinet bends a blue note
you realise that this is essentially
a 95bpm deep house track mas-
querading as “folktronica” (Fuck,
I promised not to use that word!).
"Sólhvörf II" (“Solstice”) is also a
highlight, its ruthless kick drum and
tambourine adding the spunk sorely
missing from “Sólhvörf I.”
However, it’s entirely possible
that the very best track is Submini-
mal's remix of the title track. His
lung-collapsing bass and finely
trimmed DnB breaks (somewhat
reminiscent of Photek's work in the
'90s) complement the eerie atmo-
sphere perfectly, only embellishing
the rural sound with an urban dread
and loneliness. - Atli Bollason
panied by Nadia Sirota on Viola.
It feels like a far more measured
affair than its predecessor, ‘Drones
And Piano,’ opening with the elegi-
ac “Part I Material In D” and main-
taining a similar feel throughout
this EP. There are more aggressive
moments, like the back and forth
between Sirota’s urgent viola jabs,
and exaggerated gasps for breath
in “Part II Material In A Handsome
Stack,” but in the main this EP feels
more restrained.
Nico Muhly describes this project
as a method of developing harmonic
ideas over a static structure. Thus
far there seems to be a nice devel-
opment across the EPs. Whereas
‘Drones And Piano’ felt somewhat
like Nico was throwing all of the
notes at the stave to experiment and
see what stuck, on ‘Drones and Vio-
la’ he seems to have settled on pre-
dominantly using those that stuck. It
is all the better for it.
- Clyde Bradford
a subtext, and it does seem like a
valid concern that overt piety might
be off-putting to a young, interna-
tional, generally atheistic Western
audience. Mumford & Sons keep
their religion subtle in their lyrics,
but still it comes up in every inter-
view; The Arcade Fire "came out" in
their music only after ‘Funeral’ had
already propelled them to world-
wide fame.
Hymnalaya, for better or for
worse, completely ignore such
concerns, setting out their stall
bravely from the band name
onwards. "A Colt For a King" is the
album's opening gambit—a gentle,
peaced-out indie-folk hymn quite
possibly written from the perspec-
tive of Jesus's donkey—a parable
set to music, in effect.
If any non-believer-readers are
feeling queasy right about now,
there's good news too. Just as it's
hard not to love hippies for their
right-minded views on peace and
love etc., this family of hippie-Chris-
tians have produced a sweet-heart-
ed album studded with memorable
tunes. - John Rogers
Music