Atlantica - 01.09.2007, Side 56

54 A T L A N T I C A
ICELANDa
Fine Tuned
OUR INTERNATIONAL PICKS >
BLOC PARTY Couple bold, hedonistic guitar
ri s and chop-changing rhythms with blazingly
candid lyrics and you’ve tapped into the heart of
London’s favorite post-punk revivalists, Bloc Party,
arguably one of the biggest bands in recent years
to warp the airwaves, let alone make an appear-
ance at Airwaves. Their latest album, A Weekend
in the City, produced by Grammy Award winner
Jacknife Lee of U2 fame, debuted at #12 on the
Billboard 200 this February. Not to mention that
the quartet’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, appeared
on the UK album charts for a staggering 69 weeks.
We recommend lining up for the show now.
blocparty.com
DEERHOOF What would an Airwaves festival
be without a strong dose of experimental music?
Enter San Francisco’s veterans of irreverent noise
rock: Deerhoof. Frontwoman Satomi Matsuzaki’s
childlike voice  oats eerily above the messy melo-
dies and volatile beats of band mates John Diet-
erich and Greg Saunier. Their 2007 album Friend
Opportunity has won them praise from the temple
of online indie, pitchfork.com: “The band crescen-
dos and the singer, smooth as silk but loud as God,
rams Buddha down the throat of a giant silver
dragon.” Don’t miss their live show, a cathartic ex-
perience with improvisational tangents said to be
of a transporting nature. deerhoof.killrockstars.com
LALI PUNA Like so much indie electropop,
Munich-based Lali Puna was born of bare bones
comprising vocalist Valerie Trebeljahr, a four-track
recorder, and a lot of heart. The band was later
 eshed out with guitarist Markus Acher (of the
Notwist), a keyboardist and a drummer. Despite its
current size, Lali Puna retains a sparse but sophisti-
cated sound. The group’s music is a deftly balanced
concoction of gentle pop melodies carried forward
by surging electronic rhythms, meticulously mixed
with restraint and focus as only the Germans can.
Trebeljahr, an Asian-German educated in Portu-
gal, is a robust blend herself. Hybrid vigor never
sounded so good. lalipuna.de
PHOTO BY ÁRNI TORFASON
The annual Iceland Airwaves Music Festival is descending upon Reykjavík on 17-21 October with all
the sonic hoopla of gale force winds and tidal waves. But your loyal Atlantica music fans
Sara Blask and Jonas Moody are braving the squall for the sake of the readers,
tossing themselves into the eye of the cacophonous storm to bring you
their picks for what is shaping up to be the rockest and rollest
Airwaves to date.
Ultra Mega Technobandid Stefán