Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.07.2016, Page 43

Davíð Roach is a vital figure in Ice-
landic music culture. For many
years he and his friend Óli Dóri
have specialised in music cover-
age as Straumur. Through their
website and regular column for the
Grapevine (see page 28), they’ve re-
ported on new music since 2006.
Davíð also works as a DJ and as a
copywriter for PIPAR\TBWA. We
asked the music enthusiast about
his five favourite albums.

‘Music Has The Right To Children’
by Boards of Canada
You could call it ambient trip-hop
or intellectual fuckwave, but the
music just hovers around you and
defies your pathetic categorisation.
It’s both functional and inspiring,
organic and mechanic, innocent
yet eerie, beautiful with an ugly
dark side lurking beneath its sur-
face. Parts of it had been done be-
fore by the likes of Warp labelmates
Aphex Twin and Autechre but the
elements had never come together
quite like this before. Fractured
micro hip-hop beats, analogue syn-
thesizers, snippets of scrambled
vocals and child laughter, tape hiss
and the unconventional but beauti-
ful melodies. Every sound is like it’s
worn out, like the copy of ‘Willow’
I had on VHS when I was a child.
This album has the right to man-
kind. It will follow me and haunt
for the rest of my life.

‘Low End Theory’ by A Tribe Called
Quest
When I first heard the title of the
band I knew it was cool and knew
I would like it. The title of this al-
bum is also spot on. It’s an exercise
in the low end, also known as bass,
and a masterpiece in bare-bones
jazzy minimalism. There aren’t
any other rappers in the history
of the genre that have had the rap-
port Q-Tip and Phife Dawg have on
this album, Q-Tip’s voice like butter
draped in velvet and Phife Dawg’s
raspy sandpaper sound polishing
its soft edges.

’Discovery’ by Daft Punk
The two albums above this one are,
like Daft Punk’s first album ‘Home-
work’, quite minimal. But some-
times more is more, as proven by
the maximalist work of art that is
‘Discovery’. The album covers a lot
of ground: from the glossy disco
of “Crescendolls,” the uberfrench
filter house anthem “One More
Time,” the vocoder freakouts of
“Harder Better Faster Stronger,”
the cosmic retrofuturistic vibe in
“Voyager,” to the three-part Nin-
tendo rock odyssey of “Aerodynam-
ic.” It’s a celebratory tour de force
display of unfiltered love for the
music that the duo grew up with,
and there’s palpable joy in every
second of it.

‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and
the Spiders from Mars’ by David Bowie
If I was trying to impress an art
school chick I would say my favou-
rite Bowie album was ‘Low’. I love
that album, but to be brutally hon-
est, ‘Ziggy’ is where my heart is at.
The sheer songwriting craft, the
balls in Mick Ronson’s glam guitar
sound, the theatrical ambition and
orchestral epicality, the scope of
it all is just mesmerizing. It bends
genres and genders along the way
while setting fire to bundles of con-
ventions that came before.

‘Is This It?’ by The Strokes
I didn’t listen to this album until
a full year after it came out and I
missed their concert in Iceland.
I knew they were sort of rich and
pretty and my projection of them
was that of a boy band of the indie
rock scene. But when I listened to
it, it truly made me feel like I was
cool (nothing could’ve been further
from the truth). The raw sound, Ju-
lian Casablancas’s devil-may-care
vocal delivery and the vast swagger
of it all flowed through me when I
listened to it and still echoes today.
The album oozes so much effort-
less cool that you could bottle it
and sell as hair gel.

Disclaimer: Choosing only five al-
bums is Guantanamo Bay-ian torture
for the music lover. I cheat by includ-
ing this way-too-short shortlist:
Serge Gainsbourg – ‘Historie de Mel-
ody Nelson’
Wu-Tang Clan – ‘Enter The Wu-Tang
(36 Chambers)’
Lou Reed - ‘Transformer’
Air – ‘Moon Safari’
Portishead – ‘Dummy’
LISTEN AND SHARE: gpv.is/roach
Top Five Discography
Davíð Roach's
Five Favorite
Albums
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