Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.01.2006, Síða 4

LETTERS
Complaints, criticism, suggestions, praise, money, anything at all: Contact letters@grapevine.is or send
your mail to: The Reykjavík Grapevine, Faxagata 2, Faxaskála við Faxaport, 101 Reykjavík.
I read your magazine, and have 
often commented on the high level 
of journalism within its pages. I am 
however, today, somewhat morti-
fied by the rubbish you have allowed 
thru the editorial filter, regarding, 
specifically, the ‘album review’ of 
Kira Kira’s ‘Skotta’. 
  In Grapevine, it is generally 
obvious to me that the writers are- 
A), Interested in what they are writ-
ing about. 
B), Researching their material.
C) Combining their research with 
well-formed opinions (that while not 
always agreeable) deliver something 
that is both informative, well-writ-
ten, well edited, and personal.
This is what makes Grapevine worth 
reading.
  Your review of the recent Sigur 
Rós concert was obviously written 
by someone who knows about their 
music, who is a fan, or at the very 
least has a rudimentary understand-
ing of what they are about. If you 
were to send a journalist who listens 
to Lenny Kravitz and Norah Jones 
along to review Sigur Rós and they 
returned with something to the ef-
fect of ‘...An unintelligible made up 
language wailed over 70mins of slow 
boring music that all sounded the 
same and horrible’, there is no way 
you would let that pass... because 
simply, they would be conveying an 
opinion, which while valid, has no 
frame of reference and would serve 
absolutely no purpose to a reader 
base who generally-speaking would 
not agree, not to mention it being 
highly disrespectful to the artist. 
So then, we come to the album 
review section- Journalism, this is 
not. It is blatantly clear from the 
ANONYMOUS reviewers writing 
(a point I will return to shortly) that 
he or she has absolutely no under-
standing of the material they are 
dealing with and therefore no refer-
ence points, or relevant and therefore 
valid opinions to draw from when 
approaching this work.
  The review of Kira Kira’s ‘Skotta’ 
album should command the same 
level of respect as say, Sigur Rós, but 
it does not. There is no mention of 
who she is, where this music is at-
tempting artistically or perhaps some 
contemporaries or previous releases 
from which to draw comparison. 
Furthermore, the writer obviously 
has NO interest in, or understanding 
of experimental or electronic music. 
-Why are you running this review?  
-What purpose are you serving in 
running it? 
  You have not informed me of 
anything and you most certainly have 
not served the artist either...
-So who, or what does this review 
stand for?
  It would take one phone-call, 2 
minutes on Google, or even just a 
short walk down to Smekkleysa to 
pick up a press release, to find out 
that the incredibly talented young 
artist behind this release is Kristin 
Björk, one of the founding members 
of the Kitchen Motors Collective 
(undisputedly one of the most im-
portant driving forces in experimen-
tal Icelandic music today), and one 
of Iceland’s most interesting artists. 
You might also discover from this 
press release or phone call (Research- 
anyone?) that this album is in part 
drawn from a score Kira composed 
for a contemporary dance piece... 
which goes a long way to explain 
both the ‘mercifully short length’, the 
overall form and the ‘random bits of 
noise’.
  There is NO mention of ANY of 
this in your review. WHY NOT?
Furthermore, to add insult to 
injury, the writer responsible for this 
abominable piece of rubbish doesn’t 
even have the decency (or guts?) to 
sign off on the review... I suppose it 
makes it easier to be lazy uneducated 
and slanderous when you don’t have 
to be responsible for it. So editors, 
what are you going to do about it? 
Ask yourselves would this review 
make it into The Wire or Rolling 
Stone...? NO. 
  As I see it, Grapevine currently 
stands on a precipice, due largely to 
your generally high standard of jour-
nalism and investigative reporting 
you have a real opportunity to take 
stronghold in the Icelandic media 
landscape and establish yourselves 
as THE REAL newspaper, THE 
REAL critical eye and ear, THE 
REAL news source- that extends 
far beyond the tables of Prikið and 
Day-packs of German tourists.
However, this review only serves to 
put Grapevine right where this kind 
of writing belongs- 
...Lining the cat-litter trays of 101.
Ben Frost
Dear Ben Frost,
First, I’d like to apologize to you,
Kristin, and Sindri Eldon: You are
a reader offended, Kristin is likely an
artist offended, and Sindri Eldon is the
CD reviewer who has had a disservice
done to him because his name didn’t
get printed through a layout error. Our
new design team is excellent, but due
to my own errors, I gave them a few
stories late, and there were a few errors.
The Grapevine does NOT publish
anonymous articles—all opinions are
the reviewer’s own.
As for whether Sindri Eldon is
qualified to review Kira Kira—while
I like your comment about sending a
Lenny Kravitz fan to review Sigur
Rós, this is not analogous to what
happened on this particular occa-
sion. Sindri Eldon has a great deal of
knowledge about this particular style of
music. He also knows who Kira Kira
is. The reason his review did not grant
the respect that you as a fan might
have hoped for is that he did not find
sufficient qualities in the music, for
the reasons he presented. Great artists
make bad art; our belief is that the art
must be evaluated on its own. You refer
to other magazines. Rolling Stone is
a good magazine, but they have been
irrelevant for the last thirty years. Mr.
Wenner, the publisher, has a staff of
old men, and people who want to be
old men, and they like music by old
men. The second best album of 2005,
according to them, was the touchstone
ground-breaker A Bigger Bang, by the
Rolling Stones. Seriously. So to answer
your question about what would run
in Rolling Stone magazine—not
one of our articles would be boring or
irrelevant enough to run in Rolling
Stone. (The Wire, however, is a strong
music magazine. To test your theory
on what they will print, we will send
Sindri’s review along to them as soon as
possible.)
Ultimately, I sympathize with
you, Mr. Frost. You care about music.
We do too. Our reviewers are required
to spend an extraordinary amount of
time with each CD, and all reviews are
discussed in the editorial office at length.
Disagreements are welcome, and we’ll
print any dissent. But here’s the real
problem: I realize that when we cast
our opinion, we have an undue impact
inside Iceland. This is not our fault: the
problem is that the other newspapers
and media here are not credible because
they are just slapping their buddies on
the back… something you seem to be
asking us to do for someone who has
helped theGrapevine in the past, Kira
Kira.
WULFFMORGENTHALER
see more at www.wulffmorgenthaler.com