Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2011, Qupperneq 58

06 Grapevine Fancy Airwaves Special Go to www.airwaves.grapevine.is for extensive + up to date festival coverage
This is such a marvelous time of the
year! The weather starts to turn crappy
and that yummy influx of summer tour-
ist currency dwindles down, and we
find ourselves revved up for the biggest,
most talked about party of the year—Ice-
land Airwaves! It’s a whirlwind week of
non-stop shows, pre-parties and after-
parties and making amazing single-
serving and long-lasting friendships.
Not to mention the chance to dis-
cover tons of new music, something the
festival has prided itself on presenting
since 1999. This year’s festival is particu-
larly packed with over 250 acts playing
and time is never on your side. Luckily
for you, it is not only our job but our
duty to scope these bands out to find
out who’s hot and who’s just lukewarm.
Here are my personal ten picks of super-
exciting lesser-known acts to check out.
See you there!
aCtiVE ChilD (us) 1
Defying the norms of standard electro-
pop fare, Pat Grossi, the man behind
Active Child, is reinvigorating the genre
with a sense of novelty. This dashing
American’s songs are absolutely breath-
taking, combining serene church-like
quality, 8-bit samples, lush melodic lay-
ering and intense sexuality. Not to men-
tion his voice, the impeccable leftover of
a stint as a choir boy. He uses organic
instruments in his live shows—he plays
the harp!—and it should be a truly rap-
turous experience. Recommended lis-
tening: ‘Hanging On’
bÁRuJÁRn 2
Bringing a darker edge to the surf-punk
sound, these psychy rockers have been
playing around the city for a couple of
years but have mostly stayed under
wraps. Their live show is a hot gritty
dance party, often featuring their go-go
dancing friends onstage and inciting au-
dience members to do the same. They
are also tirelessly working to release
their first LP as soon as they can so
there are probably big things up ahead
for them. Psychobilly lovers and death-
punk aficionados be advised! Recom-
mended listening: ‘Skuggasörf’
DE staat (nl) 3
This band’s sound is like a science ex-
periment. Combining the elemental
danciness of LCD Soundsystem, the
testosterock grit of Queens of the Stone
Age and tongue-in-cheek hotness of
Electric Six in a beaker and boiled over
a Bunsen burner. The results were suc-
cessful—the mixture exploded into red
and gold smoke! It’s basic, raw, dirty and
fun and with opening slots for Iggy Pop
and The Stranglers under their belt, this
band definitely has the seal of approval.
Recommended listening: ‘Sweatshop’
DREam CEntRal station
4
The long-time brainchild of former Sin-
gapore Sling and Jakobínarína member
Hashi, this appropriately named act is
a sludgy, shoegazey dream. He teamed
up with Elsa María Blöndal of The Go-
Go Darkness to make a super-cool, Je-
sus & Mary Chain-reminiscent breed of
rock that is almost more fun to just stand
around looking bored than dancing to,
but you might not resist the latter. Too
bad you can’t smoke inside though, be-
cause this is music made for cigarettes.
Recommended listening: ‘Feel’
GanG RElatED 5
Channelling the sweetness of a ‘60s pop
combo through the DIY teenage dreari-
ness of the early ‘90s, these kids are
one of the most promising new bands
to have recently hit the stage. With
members from well-known local bands
Dáðadrengir and Morðingjarnir, they al-
ready hold clout and a fan base but are
conquering new territory with their cute,
high school love/angst tunes. Loads of
reverb, loads of clapping along, take the
boy or girl of your dreams and win their
heart. Recommended listening: ‘Dumb’
John GRant (us) 6
As they often say, only love can break
your heart. Former Czars frontman John
Grant knows this all too well and over
the past few years was broken so hard
he almost didn’t put the pieces back.
Luckily, he overcame substance abuse
and accepted himself as a gay man by
composing a gutting, beautiful album in
the league of songwriter extraordinaire
Harry Nilsson. The lyrics are sometimes
odd and quirky, but reflect deep person-
ality and stunning self-realisation. Rec-
ommended listening: ‘Marz’
mi-Gu (Jp) 7
This artsy Japanese duo is the electric
intersection of cutesy and scary. Like
Dollar store Halloween decorations.
Their hyper-weirdo groove magic could
fit perfectly in one of those creepy Hall
Of Mirrors at a carnival and their simple,
silly English-language lyrics are the stuff
of awesome kids’ books. The two are
also members of Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono
Band, which pretty much guarantees
a high level of live freakiness. Recom-
mended listening: ‘Spider’
muRmansK (Fi) 8
Goth rock purists will want to let down
their scepticism for a second, because
the second-coming of Patricia Morrison
has been located and she is fronting for
Murmansk. Bringing back the grandi-
ose, pitch-black wall of sound that was
blasting up the Batcave in the 80s, this
band are hard, howling and full of sexy
sorrow. This is certainly not for the faint
of heart. Recommended listening: ‘Moth’
thoRunn antonia 9
You may never have heard of her, but
she is no spring chicken in the big
musical world. She’s worked with Dan-
ish bigwigs Junior Senior and sang for
Fields, but can most notably be heard
singing as Nico on Beck’s Velvet Under-
ground cover album. She’s now made
a new album with electro-party mas-
ter Berndsen that delivers deliciously
dance-perfect Italo Disco. Sally Shapiro
had her chance, now it’s time for Tho-
runn! Recommended listening: ‘Too Late’
VERoniCa Falls (uK) 10
Like the Mamas & Papas on speed (so,
y’know, mid-tempo) and stuck on the
shores of England instead of California,
this 60s-style rock group is ultra-gloomy
and so much the better. Smiling is for
suckers, right? Well maybe not, but giv-
ing your cheek-muscles a break is no
reason to relax on your feet or ears. So
wipe that grin off your face and get ad-
dicted to their dark, deathly swoons.
Recommended listening: “Bad Feeling”
sÓlEy 11
While her Seabear bandmate went off
and did his thang as Sin Fang (‘Bous’,
formerly) Sóley was not sitting around
twiddling her thumbs. She cracked her
knuckles, tickled the ivories and put to-
gether a killer collection of creepy little
lullabies for a hit EP in summer 2010.
She just released a full-length album of
similar fare, ripe with fantastic storybook
imagery and gentle yet somehow omi-
nous production. Recommended listen-
ing: ‘Pretty Face’
ÚlFuR 12
He’s gone by many names—Klive, Bi-
troid, Dataplex—and plays bass for hard-
core hotties Swords Of Chaos and some
random guy named Jónsi. But he’s fi-
nally taking his own name to do what he
does best: hyper-subversive experimen-
tal dreamscapes utilising both synthetic
and natural field recordings. Most of all,
his modernised take on musique con-
crète creates grand, primal sensations
allowing one to close their eyes and get
lost in their urges. Recommended listen-
ing: Unreleased! Go find out for yourself.
lists | You should take notice of by Rebecca Louder
Listen Up! Get Excited!
Twelve terrific Airwaves bands totally worth checking out
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