Reykjavík Grapevine - 23.09.2016, Blaðsíða 25

The Third Annual
Icelandic
Design Awards
Late last year we told you about the lo-
fi weirdo trip hop act Wesen, consist-
ing of Júlía Hermannsdóttir (from
the shoegaze band Oyama) and Loji
Höskuldsson (from Sudden Weather
Change). They released a new single
and accompanying video last week
titled simply "Beach Boys." It con-
tains hazy guitar strumming, lazy
keys and loads of reverb, with oceanic
sounds and Júlías breathy monotonic
voice surfing the waves of sound. It
has just the right amount of dreamy
tropical vibes to make you forget about
that nasty Icelandic autumn that just
reared its ugly head. The video made
by Þórir Bogason (of icelandic band
Just Another Snake Cult) is equally
surreal and tropical, featuring the duo
on a digital desert island and singer
Júlía surfing on a gigantic smartphone
as if it were a magic carpet.
Talking about the beach, one of
Prins Póló's biggest hits is titled
"Niðrá Stönd" ("At the Beach"). Recent-
ly the Prins has seemed incapable of
missteps, charming hipsters and hill-
billies (and of course hillbilly hipsters)
alike with his effortless blend of wacky
lyrics, catchy tunes and left field elec-
tro pop sound. His latest effort is
called "Dúllur" and is a real banger,
with gritty and pulsating bass and a
chorus to die for. We look forward to
dancing our asses off to it at a packed
dance floor in the near future.
The futuristic Icelandic all-star
band Gangly, composed of Sindri Már
Sigfússon of Sin Fang fame, Jófríður
Ákadóttir of Samaris and Úlfur Al-
exander Einarsson from Oyama just
released their first song and video in
almost two years. "Holy Grounds" is
their second single to date and like the
first one, "Fuck With Someone Else,"
Máni Sigfússon made a video for it.
"Holy Grounds" is built around a heavy
trap backbeat mixed with beautiful
haunting vocals and both the song and
video are exceptional.
Reykjavik’s Fufanu are preparing
for the release of their second album
and if the first song from it is anything
to go by we can expect great things
from the band in the near future. The
song "Sports" is an elegant krautrock
anthem with modern emphasis and
the video was done in one take and has
a lot of sports in it!
Let’s talk about fruit stickers. Why
should every piece of fruit have to wear
its own tiny, gummy, frustratingly del-
icate identity on its skin? Fruit stick-
ers have always been a part of my life,
I can’t imagine a time without them.
But they weren’t always a thing. It took
a designer to point this out to me. And
now I can’t stop noticing them.
Designers notice thing that many
of us don’t. Design pervades our lives:
good design improves our entire exis-
tence, bad design gets stuck under our
fingernails. Recognizing and reward-
ing good design is vital to securing its
proliferation, which makes all of our
lives a little bit better.
The third annual Icelandic Design
Award will be announced on October 6!
The Award was established by the Ice-
landic Design Centre in collaboration
with the Iceland Academy of Arts and
the Museum of Design and Applied Art.
Two categories are open for nomi-
nated projects: best design and best
investment in design. The best design
award is given to a project that dem-
onstrates creativity, good presenta-
tion, and professional process. Last
year’s award went to the design team
behind the newly opened Eldheimar—
an interactive exhibition center on the
Westman Islands. The designers dem-
onstrated exemplary innovation and
creativity in bringing to life an ambi-
tious project: to reconnect to and honor
the memory of the 1973 Heimaey erup-
tion. The second award—best invest-
ment in design—was created to recog-
nize a company which has incorporated
good design into the core of its opera-
tions to “create value and increase com-
petitiveness.” Last year’s award went to
Össur, Iceland’s world-renowned manu-
facturer of prosthetic limbs.
This is not a normal talent show.
Hundreds of nominations are sent
in every year. Keep an eye out over
the next couple of weeks as the De-
sign Centre announces its top four
contenders! Rewarding good design
should be a collective effort, as it has
implications for everyone. It’s time to
start noticing those things you never
noticed, even those that you wish you
never had…
Words
DAVÍÐ
ROACH &
ÓLI DÓRI
Photo
GAS
Straumur,
Iceland's premier
indie music
radio show, airs
on X977, Mon.
at 23:00. Daily
music news in
Icelandic at
straum.is
Words
PARKER
YAMASAKI
Sweet thang SIN FANG
released his fourth full-
length album on Sep-
tember 16. The album,
titled ‘Spaceland’, blasts listeners
into the synthetic sunset; into a
space of love lost, dark euphorias,
and personal confessions. The album
features cosmic collaborations
with JÓNSI, SÓLEY, JÓFRÍÐUR
ÁKADÓTTIR and FARAO. On the
album’s release page at Morr Music,
Sin Fang explains that this album was
made in the headspace “when he felt
like he was ‘dying all the time.’” The
sound itself is much more uplifting
than Sindri describes, though, oscil-
lating between bass-heavy beats
and high, ethereal vocals.
Speaking of outer space, Icelandic
rap duo GEIMFARAR dropped a
new song on their SoundCloud called
“Hvíti Galdur.” It’s got that classic
high hat/low bass that you can step
to on the street and at the bar alike.
The two stay true rapping only in
Icelandic, which makes the song a
listening delight for all parties
involved. Whether you catch their
quips or just need something to play
at work, like while typing the music
news in brief, for instance… A little
white magic for the dark days to
come.
Júníus Meyvant released a video this
past week for his track ‘Beat Silent
Need’ from his debut album, released
earlier this summer. The album,
‘Floating Harmonies’ was noted for
its crisp production, simple melodies,
and soulful vocals that recall the
landscapes of his home country. The
video gives justice to all of these
qualities by twisting a somewhat
repetitive song into an action-
MUSIC
NEWS
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25
The Beach, sports
and the holy Prince
STRAUMUR