Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.10.2016, Side 40

Music 40The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 16 — 2016
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Festival
It’s tough enough to set your sched-
ule up for Iceland Airwaves. Five
days and 150 bands in the “official”
program alone. What makes it all
the more difficult and exciting
is an ever-expanding list of new
names on the scene. It’s like fac-
ing a finger-shaking life insurance
salesman asking, “How willing are
you to take risks?”
This year, 49 Icelandic bands are
making their Iceland Airwaves de-
but. Some have been on the scene
for decades, others just formed last
month. In the remaining weeks
before the festival we are sifting
through them in small handfuls
and will post small introductions
on our Airwaves subsite.
Aron Can
Yeah, he can. Have you ever chewed
spearmint gum in the middle of
winter and inhaled super deeply?
That’s how fresh this kid is. Cool
on the scene at only sixteen, Aron’s
contributions to Reykjavík rap are
getting attention around the world.
A good place to get to know the
guy is through the purple-hazed
lens of his double-feature video
for “Enginn Mórall”/“Grundaður.”
Breathe in/breathe out…
Bára Gísladóttir
Bára isn’t here to make things easy,
she’s here to make them interest-
ing. We were first captivated by
her at a February performance in
the experimental arts and music
space Mengi, where she hid behind
her double-bass growling, howl-
ing, wrestling with, and of course,
playing her instrument. With a
Master’s in Composition from the
University of Copenhagen, Bára
pushes music to new heights—lit-
erally. Her debut album, released
earlier this year, is titled ‘Different
Rooftops’ and is a compilation of
city-inspired tracks, from “Roof-
tops of Prague” to the “Rooftops
of Marrakech.”
Gangly
Two years ago the Grapevine con-
tributors from Straumur received
an anonymous email with a video
and song titled “Fuck With Some-
one Else.” A joke? A threat? A press
ploy? A disgustingly captivating
liquid-metal alterworld where Jó-
fríður’s haunting voice rings out
over a dark-black-deep-bass void?
The latter. This year the secretive
supergroup released another song
and video in the same style, titled
“Holy Grounds,” and which has re-
ceived praise from music-mongers
across the globe, from Billboard to
i-D to your dear RVK Grapevine.
IamHelgi
In contrast to the new and elusive
Gangly, IamHelgi is an experienced
and straightforward producer in
101. He has been working in Reyk-
javík’s hip-hop and pop scene for
the past ten years, both as an in-
dependent beatmaker and as one
half of the hip-hop duo Úlfur Úlfur.
He really needs no “welcome to the
scene” as he’s been in it for a while
now, nonetheless we are excited
to see him play his first solo set at
Iceland Airwaves this year. Also,
we forgive you, Helgi, for recently
remixing a Justin Bieber song.
Krakk & Spaghettí
Six years ago some kids called
Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler the Creator,
Domo Genesis and the likes took to
the streets of Los Angeles, donning
bucket hats and rapping about hat-
ing Barbra Streisand. At first it was
hard to take them seriously, but
by virtue of their really not giving
a fuck, people did. It was a huge
come-up for bucket hats. Krakk og
Spaghettí have a similar aesthetic
(minus the extreme crime). The
project began when Þorgerður, one
third of the group, wanted to use
her Christmas vacation to write
raps, “mostly to be funny on Twit-
ter.” “We discovered you don’t ac-
tually have to be cool to rap,” says
Margrét, another third. As Odd
Future and the bucket hat phenom-
enon has shown us, it might even
be better if you’re not.
One Week Wonder
You know this trio has something
spacey to say when they cite musi-
cal influences such as Pink Floyd,
Air and movie composer Ennio
Morricone. The group met in 2014
and went to Berlin to study sound
engineering the following year
(“we landed on the other side,”
lead singer Magnús Benedikt Sig-
urðsson sings on their debut track,
“Mars”). During their year in Ger-
many the group churned out track
after track using vintage instru-
ments and a 24-track tape record-
er. Their finished product speaks
(or sings) to the timeless (and
spaceless) nature of their creative
process. “Mars” brings listeners
somewhere high and ephemeral
where “silence is the only sound…”
Well, not literally.
Puffin Island
Whether you love or loathe the
Beatles, there has been some point
in your life where you’ve caught
yourself singing along to one of
their songs. “I wanna hold your
haaand…” you wail at someone
drunkenly. The Beatles had their
formula down. Because of them
the iconic pop sounds of the 1960s
have been carried into decade after
decade, on the backs of an ever-
evolving crowd of pop-rock-and-
indie lovers. Puffin Island bears
their beautiful burden into 2016.
The group released their first sin-
gle “Harrison” (yes, as in George
Harrison) in 2015, quickly finding
regular radio play. Their debut
album ‘Another Day’ was just re-
leased earlier this summer.
LISTEN AND SHARE:
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Airwaves
Debutantes
Who’s who and
what’s new at
Iceland Airwaves
Words PARKER YAMASAKI
Photo ART BICNICK