Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.05.2014, Blaðsíða 25

First things first, we’d like to thank
Phédre, Ken Park, Nolo and every-
body who showed up for our summer
celebration at KEX on May 3. The hos-
tel was crammed with exciting music,
people and good vibes. Thank you!
With that out of the way, we have
a lot of new music to share. Over the
last month we have been listening to
a lot of Myndra, a three-piece indie
band led by the Icelandic singer-song-
writer and guitarist Linus Orri, who
was once a member of Just Another
Snake Cult. Linus met his two Cana-
dian bandmates after agreeing to host
them in Iceland through Couchsurfing.
He then went to Rimouski in Canada
to record an album with them. The
outcome is the fantastic ‘Songs From
Your Collarbone’ out in June. Check
them out at soundcloud.com/myndra
Twenty-year-old Sigurður Ýmir
who makes beats under the name
Pretty Please just released a hazy
new song called “100kg” that has us
bouncing while we dream of summer
parties and happy days. The track is
currently streaming on his Sound-
Cloud, just waiting for you to push play.
Finally, FM Belfast’s long awaited
third LP, ‘Brighter Days,’ landed on
April 22 and it was well worth the wait.
It retains the spirit of exuberant elec-
tronic joy that inhabited their earlier al-
bums but the song writing is more ma-
ture and the sonic palette bigger. The
song “Ears,” for example, juxtaposes a
distorted hip-hop beat reminiscent of
Boards of Canada with a funky slap
bass and moody melancholic synth
melody.
Delorean is a glorious ever-
building and grinding journey with
virtuosic synthesiser workouts. Their
newest album sees more diverse and
complex vocal arrangements. Their
trademark elongated echo falsettos
have been toned down a bit, which
is a good thing because, although
enjoyable, they might have become
a bit gimmicky by the third album.
They still have their giddy goofiness
and sense of humour. “We Are Faster
Than You” has a shuffling beat and a
tiny synthesiser arpeggio combined
with playground chants of nanananas,
and jaunty saxophone mini-solos. The
whole album is a warehouse of rejoic-
ing and is bound to produce buckets
of smiles and booty-shaking this sum-
mer.
The all new "ELVIS PRESLEY – ON
STAGE" music experience kicked off its
tour here in Reykjavík on the last day of
winter—April 23.
I just want to start this review by
saying that I've been a big fan of Elvis
since I was ten. I even wrote my mas-
ters thesis on the man. So the excite-
ment was high when I walked into
Harpa’s Eldborg Hall to experience
“the closest I could get to seeing him in
concert.”
Elvis never played outside of North
America while he was alive, but thanks
to the wonders of modern technology,
a show like this has been running on
and off since 1997, touring in many of
the countries Elvis didn’t visit. Before
it was called Elvis Presley in Concert
and at that time some of the players
were member of his original band in
Las Vegas. It was not the case this time
around though and nobody on stage
looked like they had been born when
Elvis was still alive.
The main problem with this concert
was, first and foremost, that it was not
a concert. It was a group of people
playing alongside a movie, an expen-
sive movie (tickets were sold for 10,000
ISK). It never really felt like a real show.
During many of the songs the band did
not seem in sync with Elvis’s voice and
after 20 minutes, the movie cut from
‘70s concerts in Vegas to clips from
the ‘Elvis 1968 Comeback Special,’ and
then back again.
It was really ironic to hear Elvis utter
the words “If you milk it long enough”
on stage. What would he have thought
if he knew that long after his death he
would be on a big screen in a concert
hall in Iceland backed by session play-
ers milking his legacy to the max?
I'm waiting for the hologram…
25 Music
Step into
the Viking Age
Experience Viking-Age Reykjavík at the
new Settlement Exhibition. The focus of the
exhibition is an excavated longhouse site which
dates from the 10th century ad. It includes
relics of human habitation from about 871, the
oldest such site found in Iceland.

Multimedia techniques bring Reykjavík’s
past to life, providing visitors with insights
into how people lived in the Viking Age, and
what the Reykjavík environment looked like
to the first settlers.
The exhibition and
museum shop are open
daily 10–17
Aðalstræti 16
101 Reykjavík / Iceland
Phone +(354) 411 6370
www.reykjavikmuseum.is
“If You Milk
It Long Enough”
Elvis Presley—on stage
Words
Davíð Roach & Óli Dóri
Words
Óli Dóri
Brighter
Days Ahead
REVIEW
Straumur has been active since
last summer, with writers Óli Dóri
and Davíð Roach documenting
the local music scene and help-
ing people discover new music
at straum.is. It is associated with
the radio show Straumur on X977,
which airs every Monday evening
at 23:00.
Straumur
April 23 Harpa Concert Hall
Elvis Presley On Stage
Nanna Dís