Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2016, Síða 30

Laser Life's Polyhedron
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Breki Steinn Mánason is the elec-
tronic mastermind behind Laser
Life. He recently released his first
album, ‘Polyhedron’, inspired by
punk, post-rock, drum’n’bass and
Nintendo.
Breki played guitar in a band a
while ago. The band split up when
members moved away. He didn’t
create any music at all for about
two years, but instead started to
play indie video games. He found
it interesting that what the games
lacked in graphics, they made
up for in great storylines and
soundtracks. He became inspired
and started learning about the
technology behind the sounds of
old console games.
Breki says that when video game
composers created soundtracks in
earlier years, they had few chan-
nels to work with, because of the
limited capabilities of their sound
chips. Therefore, they used tricks
like fast arpeggiators to make the
music sound more complex. Breki
used those same tricks in a multi-
track recording environment, as
well as recording guitar to intro-
duce acoustic elements into the
very electronic-sounding mix.
“These old-school production
methods struck a creative chord in
my brain and I made a whole bunch
of songs,” Breki says. “I picked a few
to work on further for my debut.
Then I started looking for someone
to help me with the mixing. Curver
Thoroddsen was nice enough to of-
fer to help me out. I figured that
my music lands somewhere in the
middle between Ghostigital and
Mínus so I was sure that working
with Curver was the way to go. He
did an amazing job!”
The album can be streamed at
www.laserlifemusic.com and is
also available on Spotify, iTunes
and Tidal.
Castle
This song has a chorus. Most of the
other ones don’t, which makes it
the pop track of the album. How-
ever, it is a little bit dark as well.
When I was writing it I imagined
running around in a scary castle. I
still do when I listen to it now.
Nissan Sunny
“Nissan Sunny” is my favourite
song to perform live. The guitar
parts sound very heroic. The track
is named after my car, a red 1995
Nissan Sunny with the license
plate YR-522, which got stolen a
few weeks ago, for the second time.
This time I am starting to think
I won’t be getting it back. If you
know where it is please contact me!
Shark
The rhythm part of “Shark” is a sort
of glitch-Aphex Twin type of beat
with cosy feel-good synth lines on
top. It is the happiest-sounding
track of the album and my mom’s
favourite. A guy once told me, af-
ter a show, that if my live set were
a computer game, this track would
be the underwater level. I agree
with him.
Mindfuck
“Mindfuck” is the shortest track
of the album and by far the most
intense one. It has a weird time
signature. I almost cut it from the
album but I’m glad I didn’t because
a lot of people really like it. Plus,
some of my favourite albums of all
time have at least one really short
track so I wanted to do the same.
Dazed And Focused
This track has a weird combination
of an electronic music build and
distorted guitar power chords, but
I think the songs pulls it off. I grew
up in Egilsstaðir in East Iceland so
I drive the eight-hour haul a few
times a year. This song reminds me
of driving across the country and
blasting music. I will most defi-
nitely do that this summer, if I get
my car back.
End Of The World
This was the last song that I made
for the album and currently my fa-
vourite, probably because it’s the
newest one and the newest one is
always the favourite. When I listen
to it I imagine a world where the
machines have taken over.
Third Dimension
This song is actually me trying
to rip off a track by a musician
named Richard Vreeland, who I
later found out was trying to rip
off a band called Boards of Canada.
Therefore, this song is a ripoff of
another ripoff, which I think is hi-
larious. The song has a Miri refer-
ence in it. Miri is a band from East
Iceland and Curver produced their
debut album as well, back in 2010.
Dream Machine
This one is frenetic and full of
chaos. It is also about the world
ending. It has a drum’n’bass beat,
explosions and a guitar solo. It is
Curver’s son Hrafnkell’s favourite
track of the album.
N̶̢͇͉̤͇͔̗̗͚̝
̥͓̰͘͟S̵͍͕̦̕Ś̢̹̻͎Ņ̹͖̗̝̳̠
̱͕̳̗̪
̕͜ ͏̴̵̶͚͉̦͙͕̝̭͓̫̝̜ ̤S̢̹̳̦͈͙̱͈̦̩̜̣̲̯N̴͈͇̫̟̞
̭̞͓͡͠͞N̸̵͉͕͇̲
The last song of the album came
as a result of a happy accident. As
Curver and I were doing the fi-
nal mixing of the album, Curver’s
computer’s battery was running
low and glitches came up in the
songs. This track is actually creat-
ed from a part of the song “Nissan
Sunny,” only with lots of glitches.
We thought it sounded good and
decided to use it as an outro for the
album. This one is my mom’s least
favourite track.
LISTEN AND SHARE: gpv.is/laserl
TRACK BY TRACK
Music 30The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 6 — 2016