Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.04.2017, Blaðsíða 35

Music
Stay Weird
Four emerging acts take over Húrra
at the Weird Kids Party

Words: John Rogers Photos: Xindan Xu
Iceland’s music scene is a lot more
diverse than many people imag-
ine. It’s easy to understand why:
the dreamy, spaced-out
sounds of múm, Sa-
maris and Sig ur
rós, the restless,
emot iona l p op
experiments of
Bj örk a nd t he
slow-motion elec-
tronica of recent
exports Gangly and
aYia do paint a certain
picture, especially when
combined with the
glaciers-and-volca-
noes, ice-and-fire
brand that Iceland
has taken on in re-
cent years. It often
comes as a surprise
to people to find
out that Reykjavík
has bands playing
everything from reggae to black
metal, rap and country music.
Case in point: the recent Weird
Kids Party, held at everyone’s fa-
vourite downtown music
venue Húrra. Four very
different bands per-
formed, none of
them coming close
to conforming to
the Icelandic mu-
sic template.
First up was Rex
Pistols, the new proj-
ect of Iceland-based
Canadian Rex Beckett,
who performed live
for the first time
since the end of her
previous band An-
timony in 2016. Rex
took to the stage
w ith heav y mas-
cara running down
her face, as if she’d
been bawling in the
dressing room just moments ear-
lier. Her set consisted of a hand-
ful of synth-pop songs, bringing
to mind the gothy pop of Depeche
Mode, with some New Wave ele-
ments. A cover of “Should I Stay Or
Should I Go” proved to be a high-
light, the tempo taken way down to
a languid stagger—Rex’s doleful,
off-key vocals changed the track
from a desperate, punky thrash to
a numb and mournful ballad.
Spark and glitter
T h ree-piece UmerCon su mer
upped the pace with a set of post-
rock-inflected indie rock. Front-
man, guitarist and singer Ýmir
Gíslason has an intriguing stage
presence, his tall frame sometimes
hanging from the mic, or staring
goggle-eyed into the crowd, shift-
ing between falsetto singing and
rough, impassioned yelling. Their
set was raw, but their potential
clear.
Sacha Bernardson & The Mer-
maids dialled down the emo
and ramped up the glitter, with
Iceland-based Frenchman Sacha
bounding onto the stage grinning
in a blue jumpsuit. He was soon
joined by The Mermaids, an all-girl
choir who added depth and rich-
ness to Sacha’s skewed pop songs.
There was a certain joyousness to
this set—Sacha is a charming per-
former, at once serious, gleeful and
self-effacing. His songs wear their
influences on their sleeve, from
twinkling ‘Vespertine’-era Björk,
to the artistic leanings of the Nor-
dic indie scene, and the campy
glamour of European electro-pop.
It was colourful, positive and en-
gaging, and met with rapturous
applause.
The finale came courtesy of a
strikingly confident solo set from
Iceland-based Dane IDA | IDK,
who fluctuated between sensuous
techno and experimental sample-
based electronica, interspersed
with passages of lush falsetto vo-
cals. Ida moved around the stage
with a natural presence and grace,
clearly relishing the performance.
Her sense of enjoyment in express-
ing herself was contagious, and the
music exciting, sparky, and teem-
ing with promise.
These Weird Kids brought a
welcome sense of creativity and
artistry to the stage of Húrra, and
proved that if you scratch the sur-
face of music in Iceland, you’ll find
all kinds of hidden depths.
LISTEN & SHARE: gpv.is/dmw06
35 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 06 — 2017
“Sacha Bernard-
son & The Mer-
maids dialled
down the emo
and ramped up
the glitter.”
IDA | IDK has got it going on
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tel +354 530 22 00
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tel +354 530 22 10
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