Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.04.2012, Page 24

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 4 — 2012
Elding Whale Watching
Call us on
(+354) 555 3565
or book online at
www.elding.is
from Reykjavik all year round
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Tour Operator
Authorised by
Icelandic Tourist Board
lding.is
Make sureit’s Elding!
Environmental Award
Icelandic Tourist Board
Take part in an adventure at sea with an unforgettable trip into the
world of whales and sea birds. Before or after the tour you can also
enjoy the exhibition in the Elding Whale Watching Centre.
Viðey ferry
Viðey Island is situated just few minutes from Reykjavík by ferry. It
is interesting to visit any time of the year and each season has it's
own charm. The ferry's winter schedule runs through three seasons;
autumn, winter and spring with departures on Saturdays and
Sundays from Skarfabakki pier.
Elding Whale Watching schedule – all year round
* From 15 May to 15 September
** From 15 June to 15 August
Jan-Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct-Dec
9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00 9:00
10:00 10:00 10:00
13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:00
14:00 14:00 14:00
17:00* 17:00 17:00 17:00 17:00*
20:30** 20:30 20:30**
EL-01 / EL-02 / EL-03

February 4th – 30th April
Every Saturday and Sunday
11:00 – 13:00

Posthússtræti 2 // 101 Reykjavik // +354 599 1000

Music | Reviews
Finally the mighty Todmobile have
returned. I figured the best way to en-
gage with this new epic was to take it
for a long car drive in the countryside.
I listened to it twice in a row to confirm
my immediate conclusion: This album
is alarmingly boring and pompous.
What made Todmobile special was
how quirky and unpredictable they
were, and their ability to marry those
qualities with gripping, gorgeous and
often menacing operatic pop/rock
tunes. That edge is gone. What kills
this album is the horrid Hollywood
musical meets Eurovision contest-like
feel to it. Case in point is "Hér og nú,"
which is decapitated on its chorus'
altar. Such brutal deaths are strewn
across the album. It's as if mastermind
Þorvaldur Bjarni accidentally sent
intended Eurovision contest entries
to the rest of the band and they
went along with it. Other ill-advised
decisions include cutting Andrea
Gylfadóttir's vocal time to make room
for the band's latest vocal addition,
singer Eyþór Ingi Gunnlaugsson. This
guy can sing and his almost power
metal singing-on-a-top-of-a-snowy-
mountain approach is amazing, but the
two singers don't always gel.
At the end of the day ‘7’ needs
more Andrea Gylfadóttir. Opener
"Sjúklegt sjóv" possesses redeeming
qualities; it's a bit different from the
band’s older material, playful in its pe-
culiarity and Andrea leads over its odd
vibes. "Gleym mér ei" also escapes the
band’s poor judgement, light on its feet
yet mysterious. That's Todmobile with
its head screwed on. It's all for naught,
though.
- BIRKIR FJALAR VIÐARSSON
Todmobile
7
www.facebook.com/todmobile
‘7’ is last year’s biggest
disappointment
I do not demand 100% originality or
wild surprises at every turn of a new
album. Many original albums are
intolerable, pretentious dog shit. Some
bands' influences are very easy to
detect. Often it is their folly. That's not
the case here. Muck take established
styles and sounds, run with them and
make it their own with raging nuances
and excitement that threatens to spill
over. This is Slaves’ slam-dunk quality.
Example: the band has lately been
developing their love for twangy guitar
sound. Here it's twangy to the point
that most bands and engineers would
have said "dudes, that's too much."
Not Muck. Muck’s devil-may-care
attitude explodes with infectious, care-
less energy that's hard to resist. I ran
this shit by hardcore purists, connois-
seurs of metal, d-beat and apocalypti-
cally addicted crusties and most of
them found something to write home
about after getting hit over the head by
‘Slaves.’ Iceland's extreme sector has
the rest of the year to come up with a
challenger to top this.
- BIRKIR FJALAR VIÐARSSON
The three stars of the album are as
known for their quality song writing
as they are for their unconventional
singing styles, so bringing the three
together to harmonise seems a rather
novel idea. Gylfi is best known for
his sailor songs (and cap), Rúnar is
an old-school rocker in leather and
shades and Megas is a first-rate
lyricist. The album is something of an
overview of Icelandic popular music
through the past decades. Hearing
Megas sing Gylfi’s anthem ‘Stolt siglir
fleyið mitt’ is a treat, and the favour
is returned on Megas’ wonderful ‘Við
Birkiland.’
Megas has the most impressive
catalogue, so his material is best rep-
resented. Rúnar’s contributions are not
as well known, but work well in this
context. Gylfi gets to write the new title
track, which sounds like it was written
for (or at) a “sveitaball” in the ’70s. This
is probably as close as Iceland gets to
its own Travelling Wilburys.
- VALUR GUNNARSSON
Muck
GRM
Slaves
myspace.com/muckiceland
Þrjár stjörnur
As far as hardcore-whatever
goes, this is the best stuff being
released here for a long time
Plenty of fun to be had here, but
if you don’t know them, you might
be better off starting with their
solo catalogues
With the resurgence of lo-fi surf Pop/
Rock, it’s easy to see where Gang
Related are coming from. The song
writing here is solid, interesting and
enjoyable at times (see ‘I Slay’ and
‘Mona’), but there is little in the way of
a unique twist.
The exception is ‘Bouquet,’ a
slender torch song, vocals hanging in
the ether barely supported by brittle
guitar strums, drums arriving closer
to a funeral march than a rush to the
beach, building until everything stops,
leaving only the ether behind. It feels
like their voice... their own twist on the
sound. A whole album of songs like it
would indeed be rather boring, but it
seems like a starting point for develop-
ing their own identity.
- CLYDE BRADFORD
Gang Related
Stunts & Rituals
www.facebook.com/gangrelatedband
Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery