Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.02.2012, Page 20

20
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 2 — 2012
Music | Reviews
These days, it is fairly commonplace for
neoclassical/ethereal darkwave bands
with albums comprised of many differ-
ent styles to slap on that dreaded “con-
cept” moniker, and leave the rest to the
hard drugs. Although ‘Dead Magick I &
II’ is an album that seems to disregard
categorisation almost on purpose (pull-
ing inspiration from everything from
Lycia and Bauhaus, to Tibetan ideolo-
gies and spiritual mantras), I never felt
like I was being “forced” to experience
these things in the same way as the
musicians. I felt free to encounter the
philosophies for myself, with or without
the aid of aforementioned psychotropic
substances.
‘Dead Magick’ comes right out of
the gate with the lengthy track, ‘Dead
Mantra,’ an eight and a half minute
summons reminiscent of early Sisters
of Mercy, with the idiom, “He who
fears death cannot enjoy life,” repeated
throughout. Dead Skeletons musician
and creator, Jón Sæmundur, explains:
“I was dealing with my fear of dying af-
ter being diagnosed with HIV in 1994—
medications at that time were not the
same as today, and I had been drinking
and using hard drugs like there was no
tomorrow. I was doing an art show in
Minneapolis, and one night I was visit-
ing a friend’s house—in the living room
was a large altar made by local Mexi-
can people. It had a saying in Spanish,
‘Quien teme la muerte no goza la vida’—
I asked my friend the meaning, and he
explained: ‘he who fears death cannot
enjoy life.’ I instantly connected to it,
because at that time it was either die
or live. I took the decision to live, and
stopped drinking.”
The first portion of the album is
extremely enjoyable, highlights be-
ing the ricocheting, reverb-drenched
‘Om Mani Padme Hung,’ and the heav-
ily Cult-influenced ‘Kingdom of God’—
however, the middle third of ‘Dead
Magick’ falls a bit short, lacking the
obvious enthusiasm and confidence
of the first and last parts. Thankfully,
the simpering guitars on ‘Ljósberinn’
pick things up nicely, and the uptempo
track ‘Live! Lifðu’ is every bit as fresh
and motivated as the Sister’s ‘Temple
of Love’ was nearly thirty years prior.
The final track, ‘Dead Magick II,’ fea-
tures a nonlinear combination of nature
sounds, and thundering Tibetan trum-
pets reminiscent of early ‘90s Elliot Gol-
denthal—and is downright creepy.
Nearly all the songs found here fea-
ture some pretty cool music videos to
go along with them as well. “I see the
songs visually, like a film,” Jón explains.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned—
therefore, it is very important for me
that the songs are recorded here in
my studio, The Dead Temple. There are
strong spiritual energies here that seem
to find their way easily into the music,
and sometimes I get the feeling that we
are merely channelling the messages.”
These videos can all be found on You-
Tube by searching for Dead Skeletons.
Albums like this are extremely difficult
to do well without piling on heaping
layers of conflicting ideologies and
spiritual cheese, yet ‘Dead Magick I &
II’ is a convincing, original, and highly
enjoyable experience. Check this album
out if you are in the mood for something
distinctly different, need a soundtrack
for your next trip, or simply just want to
creep yourself out in the dark.
- bOWEN STAINES
Dead Skeletons
Dead Magick I & II
www.deadskeletons.com
This review was written in addendum to a
previous review published by The Grapevine,
to accompany the complete physical release
of “Dead Magick I & II” last month.
Art is never
finished, only
abandoned
‘Töf’ is Náttfari's debut even though
they formed way back in 2000. This is
because Náttfari had been on hiatus
since 2002 and only reunited to play
Airwaves 2010.
‘Töf’ itself works best when listened
to as a whole. It doesn't seem like just
a bunch of songs thrown together like
most albums; it sounds like a collec-
tion of songs intended to have their
own specific place within the album.
Initially songs seem a little unfinished
insofar as they don't seem to go any-
where, but as the album unfurls they
start to make sense within the context
of the whole.
This album will likely get lumped
into the Post-Rock category, which
is what you get for having little to no
vocals, but there is a strong Kraut-
Rock vibe going on too. ‘Töf’ also has
a really nice sense of space. Indi-
vidual parts are allowed to breathe and
partly because of this ‘Töf’ reminds
me fleetingly of Earth's ‘Hex’ album
with its sparse, reverb guitars chiming
almost Country-Rock like across some
imaginary plain. This album isn't mind-
blowing, but it is pretty good.
- CLyDE bRADFORD
Náttfari
Töf
www.nattfari.bandcamp.com
This is an album
SÓLARIS is inspired by Stanislaw
Lem's book of the same name and the
subsequent film by Tarkovsky. Its initial
performance also featured electronic
manipulation of the film by Brian Eno
and Nick Robertson.
Realistically you'd expect it to be
stunted when detached from its visual
other. This album though...this album is
pretty damn good. Pretty, pretty damn
good. A slow surging cacophony of
sounds clustering and compacting in
space, making it so dense and thick
that it’s almost hard to breathe, then
release when the piece ends and the
space is clear. Sigh of relief.
It's one for the headphones. Or ear-
phones. Or whatever the hell you use
to block out the outside world. One for
the dark. Lock the door, phone off, turn
out the lights, lie in bed, close eyes,
open ears, nothing gets in but the
sounds coming through the speakers.
Immersion therapy.
Just shut up and listen, ok?
- CLyDE bRADFORD
Daníel bjarnason/ben Frost
Sólaris
www.bedroomcommunity.net
Freezy listening
‘Strengur, the latest work by string
musician Tómas R Einarsson, uses
the metaphor of ‘strengir’ “strings”)
to tie together what is basically a
concept album, based around the idea
of the ‘strengir’ on a double bass, the
‘strengir’ (the word can also mean
“water currents”) in rivers and other
bodies of water around Iceland, and
the ‘strengir’ that connect him with his
forefathers.
The album, beautifully dedicated
with a poem to his late daughter
Ástriður, is thus built around record-
ings taken up of rivers and streams all
over Iceland, and then overlaid with
a double bass and percussion that
‘follow’ the movements and rhythms of
the water. Though potentially ‘Stren-
gur’ is based on a concept which could
very well cave in on its own complexity,
it is so simply and beautifully done that
it does the opposite, and using these
three ‘strings’, a fine album has been
crafted.
- bERGRúN ANNA
HALLSTEINSDóTTIR
Tómas R. Einarsson
Strengur
myspace.com/tomasreinarsson
Not an everyday album
HAMLETTE HOK
VÍKARTINDUR
www.myspace.com/hamlettehok
I don’t get it.
I always feel insecure when I try to re-
view music like this (probably because
Ben Frost yelled at me about it when I
was nineteen), but I just fail to see the
point of improvised experimental noise
if it’s just random clattering that can’t
stand up on its own. I mean, I could
easily see this working well on repeat
at an art exhibition, or accompanying
some kind of documentary or short
film, but when noise really is just
noise—no atmosphere, no layers, no
general cohesion of any sort—it’s just
boring. Only ‘10. Kafli’ contains the
barest hints of what could have been
depth, with its slow, ominous build
of drums, synths and distorted guitar
drones.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just some
sort of pop-addicted, traditionalist
reactionary with no imagination (feel
free to take that last part out of context
if I ever run for office), but I really do
not understand why anyone would
want to spend hours in a studio, days
in a graphic design office and weeks
waiting for their label/distributor to do
their fucking job (I’ve put out an album
or two before) to make, well, this.
- SINDRI ELDON
Megas og Strengir
Aðför að lögum
myspace.com/megasogsenuthjofarnir
Difficult
An Icelandic legend, a veritable lo-
cal Bob Dylan/Tom Waits/eccentric
troubadour,
Megas is a staple of many Icelandic
homes; I am certainly not alone in hav-
ing been raised with the sound of his
strange voice filling the living room at
regular intervals.
For his latest album ‘Aðför að
Lögum,’ Megas worked with a string
quintet and used music composed by
his son Þórður. Apart from his usual
clever lyrics (which will be missed
by those who don’t understand the
language), the music itself is difficult
and not something that will be gracing
my cd player regularly. The opener is
a particularly discordant track, which
if played instrumentally could be from
the soundtrack of a horror film. The
rest of the album moves along the
same lines, and while it could possibly
be considered interesting by those
inclined to these things, it is not for the
faint-hearted.
- bERGRúN ANNA
HALLSTEINSDóTTIR