7 august - The Reykjavik Grapevine
7 august - The Reykjavik Grapevine
7 august - The Reykjavik Grapevine
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40<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s usually integrity to any release<br />
from 12 Tónar, Iceland’s independent<br />
record label that closely resembles<br />
America’s Nonesuch Records. <strong>The</strong> store and the local music scene always have<br />
a stake in one of their releases, and even the failures are compelling. And when<br />
12 Tónar hits the right note, they can capture the local imagination. (Yes, they<br />
did that Mugison thing.)<br />
<strong>The</strong> new jazz album, Vottur, by Flís, is so strong and immensely likeable, that it<br />
should creep into the local culture soon. A respectable three-piece including Davíð Þór<br />
Album Reviews<br />
Jónsson on piano, Valdimar Kolbeinn Sigurjónsson on bass, and Helgi Svarar Helgason<br />
on drums, the group here reinvents the Icelandic standards originally performed in the<br />
fifties by Haukur Morthens. <strong>The</strong> blend of moody ballad with classical touches and lyric<br />
jazz takes on the endearing gothic tone that Tim Burton might ask for were he to direct a<br />
movie of A Charlie Brown Christmas.<br />
<strong>The</strong> discovery here, which may have more magnitude than Mugison, is that<br />
music existed in Iceland before rock, and it may have been very very good. Kudos must go out to the recording engineers, and<br />
Mr. Sigurjónsson on bass. <strong>The</strong> tone of the lows throughout this album are extraordinary.<br />
Björk<br />
Music from Matthew<br />
Barney’s Drawing<br />
Restraint 9<br />
With this new release, we get the dubious proposition of<br />
attempting to understand both Björk and Matthew Barney,<br />
wonder artist behind the Cremaster Cycle. What we can report<br />
is that Matthew Barney and Björk work well together on the<br />
tracks they wrote together—both touch on root instincts and<br />
emotions, using surprisingly adept and modern tools. <strong>The</strong><br />
advantage the listener has in this CD is a more straightforward<br />
narrative drive. <strong>The</strong> vocals on this album are outstanding,<br />
especially an early Will Oldham track that draws a great deal<br />
of inspiration from Captain Beefheart. Most surprising, Björk’s<br />
voice only shows up on two tracks. Without her superstar voice,<br />
the mood and feel of her compositions is allowed to come<br />
through, and it survives very well. An extremely evocative disk.<br />
All music featured in this<br />
section and plenty more is<br />
available at the <strong>Grapevine</strong> Info.<br />
FLÍS<br />
Vottur<br />
Open from 12 - 22<br />
on Laugavegur 11 see centerfold for location<br />
Nix Noltes<br />
Orkidpur Orkidpur Hawaii Hawaii<br />
We got an early review copy of the debut release from a<br />
favourite live band the Nix Noltes. As best we can gather, Nix<br />
Noltes deliver frenetic Balkan music that mixes the ABBA<br />
song structure prevalent in fiddle music from around the world<br />
with unique time signatures. Live, this music is extraordinary.<br />
And this album replicates a live experience as best as we’ve ever<br />
heard. <strong>The</strong> slight trick is that if you’re not dancing, the song<br />
structure can be a little draining.<br />
Dr. Spock<br />
Dr. Phil<br />
Explaining why he enjoys Icelandic staple Dr. Spock, who<br />
are releasing their first CD after having played live around<br />
Reykjavík for anywhere between a decade and four years,<br />
depending on the source, a fan said: “<strong>The</strong>y have the lyric ‘I like<br />
pussy and pussy likes me.’”<br />
That’s a good one.<br />
<strong>The</strong> music, well-produced punk with virtuoso rhythm section,<br />
is similar to a band we have recommended, RASS—who share a<br />
couple members and the same label. But where RASS captured<br />
our imagination with their punk lyrics and style, Dr. Spock<br />
annoys the crap out of us.<br />
Lights on the Highway<br />
Self-titled.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re’s a lot of layered acoustic guitar here, and a lot of layered<br />
vocals. Vocal effects and outstanding fill-heavy drumming also<br />
figure in prominently. <strong>The</strong> total of the parts sounds much like<br />
90s Seattle band Alice in Chains, though instead of Layne<br />
Staley’s drug addiction focus, Lights present more palatable<br />
relationship fare. While it may not be especially innovative, this<br />
record is extremely melodic, and using the tools of Alice and<br />
Chains in more poppy material seems like a good idea.<br />
Original Music from<br />
the film Screaming<br />
Masterpiece<br />
Many visitors and fans of Iceland enjoy the film Screaming<br />
Masterpiece, by Ari Alexander Magnússon. <strong>The</strong> film features<br />
the best and brightest of Iceland’s “Cute Generation”, and<br />
some of our staff were so repulsed by it that we ran a feature<br />
discussing how many things had to go wrong in the world<br />
before this film came out. To Mr. Magnússon’s credit, he<br />
documented a great number of extraordinary musicians,<br />
among them Björk, Mugison, Sigur Rós, Bang Gang and<br />
Apparat Organ Quartet. He also found the exact theme that<br />
unites them... or the flaw. While all of these musicians can be<br />
appreciated on their own, together, on one disk, they became<br />
intolerable. So much cutey cute, so much sugar, and you begin<br />
to hate the whole lot of them. If you are a fan of any of the<br />
bands on this disk, avoid at all costs.