Hymnalaya have only been around a short time, yet their debut record is already available from excellent local label recordrecords. They are yet another Icelandic band who are not easy (at least for me) to categorise or easily describe (so I asked them to do it for me below), I also like a comment on […]
The annual competition for new bands in Iceland, Músíktilraunir, has a pretty incredible track record for unearthing excellent talent (seriously, check out hte list of winners here). So it would be fairly silly to not stick with tradition of the last 5 or 6 years and have a word with the most recent winners before […]
I've only seen AMFJ (Aðalsteinn Jörundsson,) play once, and I'll definitely be trying to see him again this year. It's noisy, it's distorted, it's electonic and it's very, very real. It's kind of irresistable. I'm delighted to have had a chance to catch up with Aðalsteinn and ask a few questions ahead of Airwaves and […]
I heard a song around lunchtime yesterday. It was performed live at Harpa a few days ago by the classic Icelandic band Nýdönsk, it was their song Flugvélar. I was vaguely familiar with the song, it was on an album I had from I guess about 10 or 12 years ago. I hadn't heard it […]
The English language Icelandic newspaper, The Reykjavík Grapevine is 10 years old this week. This is not going to be an unbiased article, I totally love that paper. Over the last ten years I have (yes, you know this) been a regular visitor to Iceland. When I think of Iceland I pretty quickly think of […]
I came across Headphones, the new album by Jóhann Kristinsson, last week when I heard about it on the same day from three different people. It was also a couple of days after I had been given some fancy new headphones – so it all made sense. I listened to it online a couple of […]
It's been a very nice year so far for Icelandic musical visitors in London. Last night was a double header in trendy, but far from home, Hoxton with Sin Fang supported by Pascal Pinon. Pascal Pinon played at 8:45, which feels like a very Pascal Pinon time of the evening. When I first saw them […]
Whilst much of Iceland was disappearing under a big fluffy blanket of snow earlier this week, 3 of its favourite musical acts arrived in (comparatively) tropical London to entertain us locals. Big boys Sigur Ros had much of the week sold out down in wild South London and by all accounts accompanied their incredible back […]
I couldn't resist a quick jaunt to Reykjavík for the first ever Icelandic edition of the famous Sonar festival. The chance to see some of the very best stuff Icelandic music has to offer in such a short space of time was too tempting. I had never been to another festival here other than Airwaves, […]