Reykjavík Grapevine - jún. 2020, Blaðsíða 24

British record label One
Little Indian, which has
released music by Björk,
Sigur Rós, Emiliana Torrini, and Ásgeir
Trausti, has (finally) changed its name.
Label founder Derek Birkett said he
made the decision after a fan explained
why the name was offensive. In a state-
ment posted on Instagram, Derek said,
“I have immediately started making
arrangements to stop using the One
Little Indian Records name and logo…
From today the label will be called One
Little Independent Records.” He went on
to say that as a teenager living in London
in the late 1970s, he was deeply inspired
by the philosophies of the Indigenous
People of the Americas, which was, as he
states, “a huge influence in our anarchist
punk movement. I was naive enough at
the time of founding my label to think
that the name and logo was reflective
of my respect and appreciation of the
culture.” SO
If there is something more Icelandic
than Bubbi Morthens, it’s the Icelandic
reggae band Hjálmar. So it was only a
matter of time until they’d join forces.
Enter “&öggun,” a song so Icelandic that
it explodes into a reggae-fused political
anthem about corruption and suppres-
sion. The song has proven incredibly
popular and is currently number one at
RÚV2, Iceland’s national broadcast.
Bubbi Morthens has been very
productive during the COVID-19
pandemic, also collaborating with the
Icelandic hip-hop artist Haki in “Fl'g,”
(Fly), which is the most popular Icelandic
song on Spotify. Pretty impressive for an
old troubadour. VG
Skoffín is part of the insanely creative
Post-dreifing collective, which has
produced the best indie music in Iceland
for years now. Their newest album,
‘Skoffín hentar íslenskum a#stæ#um,’
which came out in late May, is a serious
contender for album of the year and has
been spinning in the Grapevine office
since its release. The record serves up
raw indie punk with odd breaks,
energetic lyrics and a vibe that makes
you want to skew radically left, hurl a
Molotow cocktail at parliament, and
tongue kiss your lover while breaking
your guitar on a police car. We don’t
really know how you would make this
happen, but we believe in you. VG
MUSIC
NEWS
meet dirb (not bird)
dirb’s debut album serves up a
!enre-bendin! melan!e of sounds
Words: Sam O’Donnell Photo: Art Bicnick
Album
'dirb' will be released on July 3rd.
Ingvi Rafn Björgvinsson, also known
as dirb, creates music that is just as
unusual as his name. The pseudonym
comes from the combination of a
childhood nickname and his initials.
“When I was young, and my brother
was starting to be able to speak, he
couldn’t say Ingvi,” he explains. “So he
always said Diddi, and it just stuck.”
Uncharacterisable
His self-titled debut album, which
drops on July 3rd, can’t be charac-
terised by any one genre. Indeed, it
serves up a broad spectrum of sounds
from experimental hip-hop to lo-fi
trip-hop. “I don’t
want to put myself
in too much of a
box,” he says. “So I
want to make pop
songs and I want
to make hip-hop
songs and elec-
tronic dance mu-
sic and everything
i n b e t w e e n . ”
As a produc-
er, dirb is always
trying to do what comes natu-
rally in the studio, which he says
can change from day to day. “One
day its ambiance, the next day it's
a 4 to the floor kick drum beat or
whatever,” he says smiling. “I just
try to follow my stomach and fol-
low what comes naturally that day
when I start working on a new song.”
As a result of this genre-blending,
dirb has collaborated with a diverse
set of artists, each with their own
unique sound, including R&B song-
stress GDRN and the always-eccen-
tric rapper Kött Grá Pjé. Yet, he lends
his own voice to each collaboration.
For example, “Kattarkvæ$i,”
featuring Kött Grá Pjé, is a solid
hip-hop song with a heavy beat
and angry tone, showcasing dirb’s
flow. This contrasts sharply with
“Seg$u Mér,” a sleepy, sweet song
featuring GDRN, with an elec-
tronic and bass-heavy piano riff.
A whole ‘nother
ball game
In advance of the album release,
dirb landed a record deal with Alda
Music—the same label as Countess
Malaise, Benni Hemm Hemm and
KALEO—a deal, he explains, that
was sort of an accident. “I uploaded
my first song to global distribution,”
he says, adding that difficulties with
the bots that ran the online global
distribution led him to seeking out a
human contact for the task. “Trying
to deal with personal stuff with bots
is not good. Quite stressful,” he adds.
Then, a friend told him about
Dreifir, the distribu-
tion source for Alda
Music. So he went
to the office with
the intention of up-
loading his music
there. The atten-
dant who answered
his questions subse-
quently asked to hear
his music. “After it
was done, I was tak-
en aside, and they
were like, ‘Hey, I think we could
work with you,’” he explains.
Prior to that interaction, dirb
hadn’t shared his music to anyone
outside his inner circle. “When
someone who is not emotionally
attached to you comes to you and
says, hey, let’s do this, it’s a whole
‘nother ball game,” he concludes.
Never say never
While Ingvi does not restrict him-
self to a single genre and he likes
to collaborate—he still plays elec-
tric bass with Oyama, Markús Bja-
rnason and Sunna Fri$jóns—as
dirb he is sticking to solo work for
the time being. “Never say nev-
er,” he says, “but I think I will fo-
cus on the solo project for now.”
“I want to make
pop songs and
I want to make
hip-hop songs
and electronic
dance music.”
Not birdlike at all
Music
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