Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.05.2016, Page 24

The newest ad-
dition to Reykja-
víkurdætur’s grow-
ing repertoire is a
soft groove called
“Segið bara satt”
(“Just Tell the Truth”). Reykjavíkurdætur
are known for frequently engaging in cul-
tural criticism and this song is no excep-
tion. “Segið bara satt” is a response to the
current political situation in Iceland and
is strongly critical of capitalism and neo-
liberal politics.
The lyrics are composed by MC Bein
(Bergþóra Einarsdóttir) and include
sound clips of current and former min-
isters speaking about the importance of
economic growth—contextualising today’s
issues against the background of the 2008
crash and the ensuing financial crisis, with
the song ultimately diagnosing the men as
being addicted to money.
MC Bein says the song was inspired by
John Lennon’s “Gimme Some Truth,” but
that its potency grew when the Panama
Papers scandal unfolded.
Meanwhile, the beats are composed
by renowned singer/songwriter Mr. Silla
(Sigurlaug Gísladóttir), who released
an album last year to critical acclaim.
“Bergþóra and I have been friends for a
long time,” she says, “and we had been
working on the song when the scandal
broke, which subsequently made the
song even more relevant.”
Reykja-
víkur-
dætur
– “Segðu
bara
satt”
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
STRAUMUR
Download it for free
at gpv.is/toti04
Nintendo,
slack rock
and psychos
This month saw the release of ‘Polyhe-
dron’, the debut LP from the long-over-
looked one-man band Laser Life. The
one man in question is Breki Steinn
Mánason, a 25-year-old guitarist with
roots in the east of Iceland and hard-
core rock acts such as Gunslinger. As
Laser Life he goes in new directions,
mixing the classical synth/organ an-
tics of Apparat, guitar hero leanings
of Ratatat, and naive melodies remi-
niscent of old Nintendo games—with
impressive results. The album was
mixed and mastered by Curver (of
Ghostigital fame) and sounds won-
derful on a pair of headphones: dirty
synth bass and crisp drum program-
ming lay the groundwork for beautiful
8-bit melodies and arpeggios with the
occasional outbursts of electric guitar
noise freakouts. Listen to it or order it
on his Bandcamp page and re-live your
(possibly unremembered) nostalgia for
NES music like Mega Man mixed with a
rockier edge.
A couple months ago, we introduced
you to the dynamic and mystical duo
kef LAVÍK, who have been churning
out detached and drugged-out auto-
tune pop for the past year on their
Soundcloud page. They released a new
song this month called “Síðan Vélin
Fór Af Stað” (“Since the Machine Went
Off”). In the lyrics, its narrator com-
plains about his girl smoking all of his
cigarettes and proclaims his hope that
she dies from them as soon as possible.
“Your wounds look worse than they
did, they bleed a lot more” is just one of
many wonderful lines, as is “When I’m
inside of her I think about you, if I only
had the ability to pick up the phone.”
They are also broadening their sound-
scape, adding dramatic piano and strings
to the electronics and autotuning, mak-
ing us excited for future releases.
The slack rockers in Stroff, who re-
leased their second album at the begin-
ning of this year, sent a cover of Bruce
Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia”
to the airwaves last week. Now we know
how the song would have turned out if
the Boss sounded a little bit more like
Stephen Malkmus and was backed by
Dinosaur Jr.
More covers! Grísalappalísa just
released a brand new cover of the 50s
Icelandic song “Bimbó.” The song was
originally performed by Öskubuska
and K.K Sextett in 1954. Grísalappalísa
make the song their own and the result
sounds like a mix of early punk and
something from the ‘Nuggets’ compila-
tion. The band is currently working on
their third album.
Speaking of ‘Nuggets’, the legendary
Northwest “garage rock” band the Son-
ics were just announced to play Iceland
Airwaves 2016, which will take place
November 2-6. We are going out of our
heads, losing our minds—this Iceland
Airwaves will be… WOW PSYCHO!
Straumur, Iceland's premier indie music
radio show, airs on X977, Mon. at 23:00 -
daily music news in icelandic at straum.is
Written by ÓLI DÓRI & DAVID ROACH Photo by LASER LIFE
Aron Can is a fresh
new face on the Ice-
landic hip-hop scene.
The sixteen-year-
old’s song “Þekkir
Stráginn” (“Know the
Kid”) already has over 23,000 plays
on Spotify. You can see Aron Can at
Extreme Chill Festival and Secret Sol-
stice this summer.
For more hip-hop, check out Alexan-
der Jarl’s newest album ‘Kókosolíu-
furstar’, which was released April 4th.
The JARL $QUAD will be performing
at Secret Solstice this summer.
The album ‘Genematrix Perimeter-
stroke’ by Icelandic bass player Jóhann
Gunnarsson was recently released
and is not to be missed by any jazzist.
The album explores new territories
within jazz and features prominent
Icelandic musicians like Ari Bragi,
Jóel Pálsson, Hallvarður Ásgeirs-
son, Þórdís Gerður Jónsdóttir and
Helge Harrh.
The oh-so fabulous Hildur has been on
the rise since she released her banger,
“I’ll walk with you,” which went
straight to the top of the Icelandic pop
chart. She is now currently working
on a new song in collaboration with
H.dór and a music video to follow.
Judging by Hildur’s last song+video,
this’ll be good.
Electronicists Samaris have released
their first song in English. The music
video for “Wanted 2 Say” is delight-
fully eerie, featuring wonky lighting
fixtures, desolate suburbscapes, and
choreographic contortions. Check it!
Sísí Ey has kept the dance floors of
Reykjavík warm since 2011. They will
be bringing the heat to Glastonbury
this summer!
The crushable, limber R+B songsmith
Auður will be busy this summer, play-
ing at various festivals. He recently re-
turned from MUSEXPO in Los Ange-
les, where he performed his first-ever
MUSIC
NEWS IN
BRIEF
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