Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.11.2016, Síða 26

26The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 17 — 2016
attic space. For any-
one who can follow Ice-
landic sign language, the
video tells two stories.
While Vil wanders the countryside,
Emmsjé Gauti brings it back to the
local streets with his video “Reykja-
vík.” The song will get anyone hyped
for a night on the town—and the
video takes that notion to literal new
heights. Gauti makes his way along
the rooftops of Reykjavík’s most rec-
ognizable establishments—from the
lowball Bæjarin’s Bestu to the peak of
Gamla Bíó.
The electro-rap-trip-popsters of
Cryptochrome have mesmerised
us in the past with their chopped up
color-cast “Crazy Little You” and
their virtual reality video “Playdough,”
which won "best music video" at the
Northern Wave film festival earlier
this year, but their latest release for
the track “From This Angle” scales
things back in both realms of produc-
tion. The video is an intimate (their
“most intimate,” they note on their
Facebook) take on home life—a
Cryptochrome home life, anyways.
Rap has long preoccupied itself with
keeping it real, but no group has done
it quite like Úlfur Úlfur have in their
latest video, for “Barn.” The video,
with the same director as Gauti’s
“Reykjavík,” Freyr Árnason, shows the
day to day sacrifices that are required
for keeping up a craft. Things like
eating steamed broccoli, reading and
competing in the most intense chess
match on Icelandic soil since Bobby.
Fischer was around.
“Gakktu hægt um gleðinnar dyr,’ it’s
something like, ‘Calm down, take it
slow,’” Árni says above the clamour of
pinball machines and jingling tokens.
“My dad used to always say it to me
before I’d go out. It’s the best Icelandic
phrase,” he assures me. The lights in
Freddi Arcade are dark and neon at the
same time, and the Space Jam pinball
machine spews out sound effects from
a speaker right above our heads. But
Árni lives in the phrase. He keeps cool
and makes generous with customers,
rocking around his DJ kit on the desk.
On the bill he’s DJ Thaison—a
character and craft that originates
in a Best Buy in Tampa, Florida. “My
family has a summer home in Florida
and I wanted to spend some time with
them,” Thaison explains, “and while I
was there I went to Best Buy to look for
this DJ setup. They didn’t have it and
the clerk asked me if I had looked on-
line. I told him I never shop online. He
was so mad!” Thaison took note. “So I
went home and ordered this thing for
like no money. We went to Disneyland
once that week, but otherwise I didn’t
really have anything to do, so I just
stayed on my balcony, drank Coronas
and played it.”
Everybody’s got to start some-
where, but in Iceland no one starts
alone. When Thaison returned from
Florida his longtime friends, DJ duo
Gervisykur, took him under their
wings. They taught him how to mix
and play at the right time. They gave
him the confidence and encourage-
ment to get after it. So he did. His first
gig was at Tivoli to “a group of about
six people, with one girl dancing. She
was super nice though, she really liked
the songs [we] were playing.” The en-
couragement keeps rolling in.
Of course, he likes to play old school
hip-hop (who doesn’t?), but he main-
tains a wide perspective. Over the
course of the set we’re chatting over he
moves from “Never Too Much” by Lu-
ther Vandross to Willow Smith’s “Fe-
male Energy,” and straight on through
to some Páll Óskar classics. “I’m al-
ways shouting in the crowds what I
want to hear,” he says, “but I never get
any contact. The only time I’ve ever
made the connection was with Páll Ós-
kar. I made a heart with my hands and
he made half a heart back. That made
me a man.”
Thaison’s fresh on the scene, and
he’s got big dreams. “I want to be a pro
DJ in Ibiza,” he says, “drinking cock-
tails like DJ Tiësto.” He pauses. “No,
maybe not like DJ Tiësto.” The “gak-
ktu hægt um gleðinnar dyr” settles in.
Prikið now, Ibiza next. He’s making
his way there, and we’re rooting for
him. Viva Árni, viva Páll! That’s some-
thing like “shouts out to Páll Óskar.”
Want to know what else Thaison is
about? Catch his set at Prikið on Decem-
ber 10.
DJ Thaison’s Top Five Tracks
• “Million” — Yemi
• “Top Boy” — Skepta
• “Paranoid” — Project Pat
• “Turn My Swag On” — Soulja
Boy Tell ’Em
• “Meira” — GKR
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MUSIC
NEWS
Music
Words
PARKER
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ART BICNICK
DJ OF THE ISSUE
DJ Thaison
West-Iceland
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