(originally published on Drowned In Sound)
The
Kex hostel is on Skulagata on the coast of
Reykjavík
(translation: "smoky bay”) was once a biscuit factory, and it still
bears many of the building's original hallmarks. A Sweeney Todd-like
barbers is housed in a walk-in safe with metal door a foot thick, and
there are steel lockers instead of wardrobes, wooden crates used as
tables, and careworn original signage everywhere. But now, the
Kex
building has become a bustling hostel that houses a multi-purpose bar,
restaurant and arts venue that's equal parts bric-a-brac installation,
cosy study and über-cool warehouse space. Before it was the hostel, it
was a pool bar that morphed into an illegal after hours party venue,
eventually closed down by city police for becoming too popular. At
January's
Reykjavík Music Mess it was the festival centre, holding daytime gigs while performers and punters looked on over their hangover coffee.
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| Haukur S Magnusson (Reykjavík) at Kex |
Kex becomes the hangout on this trip to talk to some of the great and the good of Reykjavík’s
music scene, made famous worldwide in recent years by breakout acts
like Múm, Björk and Sigur Rós. But some inhabitants see this as a curse
as much as a blessing. Haukur S Magnusson, guitarist in the band
REYKJAVIK! and editor of the local English-language paper Reykjavik
Grapevine, is frustrated by the perception of an 'Icelandic sound'.
"Some people started seeing the Icelandic sound not as I would like to
classify it, as a liberal, spirited, lively sound that allows for
everything, but as just something that sounds like glaciers," he says.
"This troubles me. When I was working with the Iceland Music Export I
helped put together a Made In Iceland compilation. I solicited the
tracks that had been picked, and sent them off to a PR firm in America,
and set up a Google alert for the reviews. And I remember reading them.
It was like, 'this is amazing, Valgeir Sigurðsson is crying gold tears
from heaven, and Rökkurró are heaven being cried from gold tears',
etcetera. But then the reviews would hear Mugison, and be like 'what the
fuck? Do we really need blues from Iceland?' Whereas I remember in
2004, one of the best bands I have heard here was a total homegrown mix
of Madchester, hip-hop and punk rock. This is the Icelandic sound to
me."
That kind of post-everything creativity is shot through the
Icelandic approach to music making. Anything goes here, and the arrival
of a signature sound could could indeed lead to an abandonment of this
special creative instinct as new bands scramble to be part of a musical
gold rush. But exciting bands like Retro Stefson crush together myriad
genres into original afro-metal-party-dance-funk-disco music, and
the multi-generation five-piece Apparat Organ Quartet not only feature
both a students and a grandfather but play high-throttle
kraut-synth-chamber-metal - the city’s new generation aren’t showing too
many signs of turning into copyists.
 |
| Halli Valli (Æla) at Kex |
Later we talk to striking singer Halli Valli, frontman of local
scene heroes Æla (translation: "puke"). They're one of the best kept
secrets in Iceland – a mix of Shellac-style tense post-hardcore,
explosive punk and ridiculously catchy indie-rock, sung in Icelandic.
Their much-anticipated second album will feature their first English
language songs. “We wrote in Icelandic because it’s very Icelandic music
we make,” says Halli. “We never had any plans to take over the world.
We just planned to have fun. But our plans have changed,” he smiles.
“Icelandic bands get a lot of support from the Icelandic Music Export,
the Loftbrú travel grants to fly out and do shows, that kind of thing,
it’s really good.” When asked about his favourite Icelandic bands, he
reels off a long list. “I really like the band REYKJAVIK! of course; and
Prinspolo, Sudden Weather Change, Kimono, Agent Fresco. And I really
like Sin Fang and Seabear, both from the same guy, Sindri.” It says
something of
Reykjavík’s size that we later bump
into members of half of these bands, including Sindri, in one or the
other of the city’s two favourite downtown party bars, Bakkus and
Kaffibarinn.
At the foot of the town, opposite the hot dog stand with pictures of
Metallica and Bill Clinton trying out its famous “pylsur”, stands
Harpa
- a brand new concert hall that’s construction ground to halt for
several years, plagued by the Icelandic financial collapse. Finally
finished, it stands like a gleaming glass and metal mecca for Icelandic
music. But many of the people we talk to are unhappy with various
aspects of it – some bands have not been allowed to use specific sound
equipment and shifted gigs elsewhere last-minute; nobody can sell merch
except the in-venue 12 Tónar store, damaging valuable incomes for
performers, and local promoters have found negotiations with the venue
to be unforgiving. But nevertheless, the spectacular Harpan is finally
complete, and will be a part of the 2011 Airwaves festival, throwing its
doors open to the music lovers and party goers who descend for the
city-wide party from all over the world every October. "It's not a
single venue - there are four different venues inside and we are using
them all," says Grímur Atlasson, the festival director. "For us
Icelanders
Harpa is a token of many things - some negative - but for Iceland Airwaves it's just magnificent."
This year is an even more special Airwaves, as the country’s most
famous daughter Björk will present her Biophilia project in all of its
multimedia glory at a series of intimate shows. With all of this talent
and invention bubbling away like the hot water under this magical
country’s lava landscape,
Reykjavík remains a
wellspring of new music and creativity. For those yet to make the trip,
Airwaves 2011 is the perfect opportunity to experience it first hand.
Thanks to Kex http://www.kexhostel.is
Photography by Vasilis Panagiotopoulos
--
5 Hot Bands From The Land Of Ice
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| Úlfur (Apparat Organ Quartet) at Kex |
Apparat Organ Quartet are like no other band. Acquiring a
towering cult status from their self-titled debut, their second LP
Pólýfóníá sees them stepping up their analogue dance music to a frenetic
pace and an epic scope - a favourite of Bjórk, there're unmissable
live.
Gus Gus are from the Icelandic old-school – they have been
going for over 15 years in one form or another, be it as a trip-hop
collective or as purveyors of upbeat pop on 4AD. They recently
reinvented themselves as a soulful minimal techno outfit on Kompakt, and
in recent albums 24/7 and Arabian Horse have moved the goalposts for
the genre.
Sin Fang is one guise of Sindri Mar Sigfusson, a heavily
tattooed skateboarding fanatic and singer of Icelandic indie-pop urchins
Seabear. With Sin Fang he explores more abstract territory via African
rhythms, synth washes, lumbering beats and interweaving vocal layers to
create a hypnotic mass of sound.
Kippi Kaninus is the solo project of choir singer and sample
wizard Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson, creating lush, organic electronica
from sounds as odd as an apple being eaten, recorded from inside the
apple. He joined Amina for their second album Puzzle, and his solo
project has since found a new form with a five-piece band including two
phenomenal drummers, one of whom was in Björk’s band The Sugarcubes.
Samaris were one of the standouts at Reykjavík
Music Mess festival, and have tongues wagging as a result. They make a
brooding, melancholic brew of languid trip-hop, breakbeat and scratching
that reminds of Portishead and Lamb. They were one of the winners of
the 2011 Kraumur awards for new Icelandic music: previous winners have
included Retro Stefson and FM Belfast, so watch this space.
+ "Külastus" released on 10" vinyl June 4th
