Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2016, Side 48

Music Pop48The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 6 — 2016
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Back in 2013, before the ticking
time bomb of the Icelandic rap
scene had exploded, a new band
called Cryptochrome released
their debut self-titled album. A
mixture of textural electronic in-
terludes and hip-hop, it pricked up
the ears of many 101 music scene
insiders.
Now, three years later, comes
the ambitious follow-up, ‘More
Human’. I meet with Anik—an An-
glo-German rapper and producer,
based in Reykjavík—and Icelandic
vocalist Una to find them fizzing
with excitement about the new
material. Both come from multi-
disciplinary, creative backgrounds,
and have been enjoying putting
their skills to good use.
“It’s been really positive to gath-
er all the energy from my different
creative outputs, and put it all into
one project,” says Una. “It feels like
everything I’ve done has been lead-
ing up to this—whether it’s act-
ing, design, marketing, or singing.
When you grow up doing many
things, it can be difficult—you hit
a point where you feel like you’ve
done an awful lot, but it’s scat-
tered around and doesn’t add up to
much. But here, in this band—this
is what I’ve been working towards.
It all really makes sense.”
“And the amount of enthusiasm
that’s been accumulating is amaz-
ing,” says Anik. "People are coming
from all over to help us, of their
own accord. It gives us a lot of mo-
tivation and energy.”
The magic number
As well as releasing a stream of
high-quality videos in 2016, Cryp-
tochrome have recently welcomed
a new member in Leigh Lawson, a
producer who worked on the debut
LP. “When we were making the
first album we were playing with
beats and sourcing sounds from
everywhere,” says Anik. “We went
to Leigh’s studio in Kent to mix
and master it, and he was mind-
blown. He said, ‘This could really
be something.’”
Leigh duly came out to Iceland
to work on the second album. “We
recorded everything for ‘More Hu-
man' in six days, with his portable
studio,” says Una. “Leigh just basi-
cally fell in love with Iceland, and
moved out here to set up a studio."
Anik speaks very highly of
Leigh’s work. “The people he’s been
working with so far—their jaws
have dropped at what he can do,”
he says. “Leigh is very high calibre.
And it’s great for the band to have
a base, to develop the live show
and move things on."
The proof is in the results—
Cryptochrome’s new material is a
clear step up. The recently released
“Crazy Little You” is an infectious
pop song with clear hit potential.
“We still don’t classify ourselves
solely as pop,” says Una. “It’s elec-
tronica, too, and it has hip-hop
elements. But we want our music
to sound as good as commercial-
ly made pop music. It shouldn’t
sound different if you play it after
Beyoncé.” She stops and grins, fin-
ishing: “We want to change pop!"
See Cryptochrome play live at the
Grapevine Happening at Húrra on June
3rd.
SHARE & LISTEN: gpv.is/crypt
More Human
From humble DIY roots, Cryptochrome
aim to change the face of pop
Words JOHN ROGERS Photo ART BICNICK
ALL DAY
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