Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.07.2016, Side 28

Earlier this month, electric trio Samaris
released the song “Black Lights” from their
upcoming album of the same name. ‘Black
Lights’, Samaris’ third full-length, will be
released June 10. The band will be touring
in June, starting in England and ending in
Iceland June 29 at Húrra.
The song is a laid-back electronical feast
for the ears and a bit more poppy than
“Wanted to Say,” which was the first track
off of ‘Black Lights’ to be released.
Sigur Rós – “Óveður”
TRACK OF
THE ISSUE
STRAUMUR
TRACK OF THE ISSUE
Watch the video! at gpv.is/t9
Thursday
The Good: Gísli Pálmi is a phenomenon.
I think he has similarities with both Riff
Raff and Die Antwoord, in that his thang
is equal parts music and performance
art. I don’t know where to put his music
on the irony-sincerity scale or if I should
not believe the hype, denounce it or
just tag along with it. But this night he
brought his A-game and owned the stage
and every person in a 200-metres radius.
The Bad: I love Hjaltalín, especially
their latest LP, but good sound quality
is absolutely crucial for their live show.
That was nowhere to found at the Gimli
stage during their show, so I promptly
left.
And The Middle-Aged Mediocrity:
While I love many of Sister Sledge's
songs, their greatness is mainly the
product of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Ed-
wards, aka Chic, who wrote, performed
on and produced all of their classic al-
bums. The sisters still had some dance
moves but their voices were obviously
past their peak.
Friday
The Great: Thom Yorke, his lazy eye and
the rest of the Radiohead gang started
quietly but slowly gained momentum
throughout their amazing two-plus-hour
set. By “Idioteque,” the last song before
the first encore, I had fallen into some
sort of a trance and when 10,000 people
sang, “For a minute there, I lost myself,”
I felt like one piece of a large collective-
consciousness puzzle.
The Unbearable: The “new” Laugar-
dalshöll has the capacity for about 10,000
people but has serious problem with ven-
tilation. The heat was almost intolerable
and I almost left at one point, despite the
awesomeness of the performance.
And the Wacky: Jack Magnet, the
keyboardist and one of the founding ar-
chitects of Stuðmenn played an unbe-
lievably weird set at the Valhalla Stage.
He was dressed like a bishop, one of his
guitar players like an Orthodox Jew and
he also had a female dancer in a burka.
Saturday
The Amped-up: M.O.P. are masters in
crowd control. The 90s hip-hop legends
ploughed through their catalogue to a
crowd that went repeatedly apeshit and
the screaming and jumping were para-
mount.
The National: The Icelandic national
team played Hungary at 16:00 and the
game was showed on a big screen at the
main Valhalla stage. A large crowd gath-
ered to sit and watch the game and the
experience was communal and beautiful.
And The Lame: A gang of about eight
policemen roamed through Laugar-
dalshöll with a sniffing dog intimidating
people. Though you could see some drug
use at the festival I didn’t see a single
fight or anything but love and brother-
hood.
Sunday
The Psychedelic: Armed with an army
of guitar pedals, an old-school wooden
wind organ and a shades-wearing drum-
mer, Par-Ðar channelled the high spirits
of the LSD 70s with a playful spirit that
was unmistakable.
The Diva: The ex-Moloko songstress
and disco goddess Rósín Murphy played
one of the best shows of the festival, in
many different costumes. She’s like a way
classier version of Lady Gaga, or, no, wait
a minute, Lady Gaga is a way trashier ver-
sion of Roisin Murphy.
And The Motherfucking BEST IN
SHOW: Die Antwoord are not a band.
They are an unfuckable trilogy of South
African white trash alien ravers who pro-
duce sounds and images that affect the
no man’s land between your body and
soul. It was the very best show of the fes-
tival and one of the best I’ve attended in a
long time. Part early 90s old-school hard-
core, part helium raps, 100% ENERGY.
SHARE & LISTEN: gpv.is/str8
More than three years after the release of
their last album, Sigur Rós have treated
fans to some new music with the release
of “Óveður.” The Icelandic post-rock su-
perstars are sticking with their ambient
sound backed by industrial undertones
on this release, as Jónsi’s voice and a
sparse string section soar above thrum-
ming drums and synth. This is a track
that must be listened to with a good pair
of headphones.
“Óveður” is accompanied by a dark
music video that sets the stark beauty of
the Icelandic landscape in contrast with
the perils of modernity. The band makes
a cameo appearance in the video that
will leave your skin crawling with horror
and excitement.
Fans of Sigur Rós will be thrilled to
have some new material to listen to, but
will also probably all have one question
on their mind: Can we expect a new al-
bum in the near future?
Words
DAVÍÐ ROACH
GUNNARSSON
Photo
ART BICNICK
Straumur,
Iceland's premier
indie music radio
show, airs on X977,
Mon. at 23:00.
Daily music news
in Icelandic at
straum.is
Indie rock band KA-
LEO have released
their second album,
‘A/B’, after signing a
record deal with Warner Music
and moving to Texas. They have
also been included on Rolling
Stone’s list of “10 bands you
should know.” ‘A/B’ debuted
at #16 on the Billboard 200
chart, and the band has made an
appearance on ‘Conan’.
REYKJAVÍKURDÆTUR, the
rap clan we all love has set out on
their tour to Denmark, Norway and
Spain. These are their latest in a
series of shows that have garnered
them attention around the world,
from Canada to Belgium.
THE DIVERSION SESSIONS,
the latest project of Reykjavík
musician Markús Bjarnason, has
released their long-awaited first
album, ‘The Truth The Love The
Life’. The album has been well
received following the release
show at Tjarnarbíó in early June:
it was featured as “album of the
week” on Iceland’s Channel 2.
Electro-pop up-and-comer
HILDUR premiered the music
video for her new song “Bumpy
Road” on June 14 at Loft Hostel.
The song follows up on Hildur’s
hit “I’ll Walk With You,” which
was released earlier this year. The
evening also launched an exciting
collaboration between Hildur and
Sunna Ben, who is now designing
merchandise for the musician.

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The Good, The
Great and The
Unbearable