Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2019, Side 8

None of us here at the Grapevine can
run 1 km without thinking we will die.
We’re a collection of drinkers, smok-
ers, couch potatoes and DJs—not the
most athletic bunch around. So, when
we heard that Elísabet Margeirsdóttir
won the women’s division of the 400 km
Ultra Gobi Marathon in October 2018—
simultaneuosy becoming the first
woman to do so in under 100 hours—
we all fell to our knees to bow to our
new Goddess.
All hail Elísabet
Running a marathon is cool, an ultra-
marathon impressive, but running the
a is pretty much HOLY $H!T level action.
The race is a non-stop, self-navigated,
and self-supported ultramarathon held
in the southern Gobi Desert in Western
China. This means that runners have
no trail to follow and instead rely on
archaic objects like compasses, all the
while holding all the food and supplies
they will need throughout the race.
Elísabet completed the race in 96
hours and 54 minutes, dealing with
temperatures ranging from 30° during
the day to -10° at night. Apparently,
she only rested for four hours during
the entire race—and, according to her,
this was only to avoid having the crazy
hallucinations people often get during
long races. Seriously, you thought
the Icelandic men’s football team was
badass? They get to sleep in beds and
wear clean socks. Sit down, boys.
Ice cold
At one point in the race, Elísabet had
to pass through a river in the night,
which caused her shoes to freeze . Yet,
the absolute legend persisted. “If you
believe in yourself and trust what you’re
doing, that does a lot. Also, the antici-
pation and excitement to finish keeps
you going,” she said of the experience.
Elísabet, seriously, you should be
a national hero. We’ll crowdfund the
statue.
The Hardest Race
In The World
Putting the entire human race to shame
8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2019
LÓABORATORIUM
A desert, yesterday.
Listen, watch & hear
more tracks:
gpv.is/play
Hermigervill - II
Well, whaddya
know. You wait
four years for the
second Hermigervill
record—with
several teasing
glimpses via
wonderful, bouncy
singles like
‘Solitaire’—and he
pulls a Beyoncé (or
a Björk) and snap-
releases it right
before Christmas.
Is it everything
we hoped for?
Yes, basically. It’s
a smart, playful,
immaculately
produced good-
vibes mini-opus.
Check it out on
Spotify. JR
Sillus - Dapply
Maybe
Hermigervill’s
release strategy
was influenced
by his little sister
sillus, who did
the very same
thing a day earlier
and dropped
a shiny new EP
with no fanfare
whatsoever. ‘Dapply’
is a textured and
interesting four
track EP, with a
simmering title
track reminiscent
of James Blake.
Promising in the
extreme. JR
ZAKAZ - Kvalir
According to ZAKAZ,
the black metal
band’s newest
album, ‘Kvalir,’ is
about emotional and
physical coldness.
With three songs that
span over 40 minutes,
their effort serves up
an enveloping world
of cinematic and
yet understanded
melancholia. Think
dungeon synth that
forgos saccharinity.
Good mood music for
walking alone in the
moonlight. HJC
PSYCHOPLASMICS -
107 RVK
Prismatic
yet weirdly
comfortable beats
made for dancing
at 4:30 AM—what
else could you
expect from the
collaboration of
Lord Pu$$whip and
Alfreð Drexler? A
sequel to their 2014
hit ‘101 Reykjavík,’
‘107 Reykjavík’
is the kindest
thing they could
play when you
accidentally take
acid on a night out
in Berlin. HJC
Teitur Magnússon -
Kollgátan
Teitur Magnússon’s
2018 album ‘Orna’
is a wonderful
collection of
skewed indie-pop,
with a nostalgic,
feel good, halcyon
haze permeating
the whole thing.
The video for
“Kollgátan” takes
this up a level
with a video of old
summer holiday
film footage of
river crossings,
ski-jumps, and
what looks like
a giraffe… in
Iceland? Or maybe
the family went
abroad. Anyway,
this is a great
track. JR
THE
GRAPEVINE
PLAYLIST
The must-hear tracks of the issue
Sk
in
he
lg
i
WORD OF
THE ISSUE Are you religious and convinced that
it makes you a better person than the
rest of us? Well, in Iceland that would be
called, skinhelgi. ‘Skin’ means light and
‘helgi’ means holy. But the word basi-
cally means ‘hypocrisy’ and is used often
in that context, although we also
have the word ‘hræsni’ over
that behaviour. Skinhelgi
has also been suggested
as a translation for the
fairly new term virtue
signalling,’ although
others prefer the
word ‘dyggðarskreyt-
ing,’ which literally
means ‘deco-
rating your-
self with
virtues.’
V i r t u e
s i g n a l -
ling was a
big part of last year’s
rhetoric in Iceland, as well as other
countries, so that’s why it’s the word of
the issue. VG
WHAT HAVE
WE WON?
Words:
Hannah Jane
Cohen
Photo: Wikipedia
First
www.tulipop.com Skólavörðustígur 43, Reykjavík