Happiness & Icelandic Electronic Music
- By : Iceblah
- Category : Icelandic Music
- Comment : 0
Is it pure coincidence that scrolling down the artist
list on iceblah's ipod (the icepod?)
that Gus Gus are right next to
Guns n Roses. I say this because these are two places I head to
regularly depending on mood. "Welcome To The Jungle" usually gets the nod
as the song to kick start a hungover morning -but it must be the live
version from Live Era. When especially happy, iceblah tends to head for
electronic music (or Irene Cara's "Flashdance", or Barry Manilow's "Mandy"
– we all have such songs, at least I'm honest). Anyhow, recently
iceblah has had a bout of the happies, not that iceblah is often sad,
and has been heading to Gus Gus regularly and beyond into the frankly
awesome Icelandic electronic scene.
I guess Gus Gus straddle the scene as the daddies due both to their
longevity and their amazing live performances. Tunes like "Desire" and
"David" get any crowd going. I saw them at the last Iceland Airwaves
for the first time, and there are not (m)any shows I'm keener to see
this time. Also right up there are Ghostigital (another band beginning
with G, I'm on to something here…). Ghostigital is where the legend
that is Einar Orn (Sugarcubes, Bad Taste…) joins forces with all
round musical midas Curver. The results are astonishing, and always in
a good way. Brilliant records, incredible live shows you can't take
your eyes (or ears) off. "Bank" and "Jejeje" are personal favourites, the
whole of the "In Cod We Trust" album really including the amazing "Not
Clean" which features Mark E Smith and has already had the iceblah
treatment here.
Beyond those bands, there are many more that are all well worth
investigating. Sometime also feature Curver, wedding his beats with an
operatic style of female vocal. Great on record, and stunning live.
Bloodgroup (pictured) made an impact with their album last year, "Try On" is a
favoutite of mine and I think this is still available from the myspace
page. I saw The Motion Boys in London last year but never yet in
Iceland, I'll put that right this time. They wore all red in London,
don't know if that's a regular thing. Whatever, this is a good, fun
band with great tunes – "Waiting To Happen" being the standout in my
view. It must be about time we got an album from FM Belfast, the icepod
has 3 tracks ("Synthia", "Lotus" and "Tropical") all utterly wonderful,
and they will be at the forthcoming London Airwaves as well as in
Reykjavik in October. Also at the Spitalfields version of Iceland
Airwaves will be Steed Lord. This band have just been named as an
artist to watch by virgin, and quite right too judging by what I have
heard.
No doubt I have left off things I shouldn't have and wouldn't have if I
had thought for longer. Already I am thinking of Hairdoctor's remix of
"All The Beautiful Boys" by Reykjavik. I'm thinking of Johnny "This Is
A Love Song" Sexual who I really want to see again
at Airwaves this time. Should UMTBS (who have described their recent
debut album as the sound of "The Sex Pistols strangling Jean Michel
Jarre with Nintendo controllers) be included in this scene? What about
Apparat Organ Quartet? Bjork even? Hmmmmm…genre defining not my strong point.
Postscript: arriving at work this morning after my happy journey
listening to an array of the above, I removed my headphones and
immediately a colleague said, "oh dear what have you been listening to,
you look really miserable." You can't win 'em all.
