Íslensk Tónlist

Enjoy!

After "Theater Island," last year's 6-track EP, Sóley returns with her first full-length, an album full of rhythmic makeshift creatures, of handclaps hidden in the undergrowth, tempting us to join in. The 13 tracks are sometimes incredibly catchy; amazingly quirky at other times: think cardigan-folk from the northern hemisphere, an ocean of stained glasses bopping up and down in the shared apartment's dishwater, leeward in limbo. The result is refreshing in its lack of edginess; think Joanna Newsom minus her harp, or the Casady sisters circa 2004, but then clearly better trained, less crooked. In other words: her voice, those loops moving around like wooden toys, and finally the piano – that's the backbone, the essence of her compositions; at least until some unexpected element appears elsewhere, a rhythmic creaking or the lack thereof, like a hidden Rube Goldberg machine, setting off yet another component, thus paving the way across the threshold and on into the next realm of sound. And thus we keep on sinking, deeper and deeper, until we stand on terra firma once again, realizing that somehow, next to us, above us, around us, a beat is laid out, hesitantly moving along at first, then careering… 

Sóley: I'll Drown

Who Would I Be Holding Tight

Tipzy King

Please

Hangover

Deliver

Sindri and Örvar are good friends. They are tattoo buddies. They are football chums. They have travelled all over the world together in a tour bus. It's about time they made a book together. There is something similar about how these boys paint the world. There is a certain crudeness to their aesthetic unravellings, one could liken it to pancreas surgery performed with a spoon. And however colorful, lighthearted and festive their drawings, music or jokes are, there is always a certain self-reflexivity to what they spew. And to chart and map the reoccurring themes of the book, they have included a song. In two parts. It's a jolly romper. 
check here: 



Apfelsin Bros.: Look at the book pt. 1

this is an album I did in Icelandic - released 2011 in iceland

01 Kletturinn

Sindri Már Sigfússon, better known as Sin Fang – and as someone who grew up with summer in his heart and on his mind (skateboarding, eating pizza, reading the German “Bravo”) –, called his last album “Summer Echoes”, and even though there was yet another long winter in-between, his new EP “Half Dreams”, dropping only a year after the album, follows in the same vein: It’s not echoes, but omens in this case, harbingers of a summer that has yet to come. Only a few seconds into “Half Dreams”, and this is blatantly obvious: the guitar is there, the voice(s), everything is switched on, going heads over heels, a-tumble, and it feels like running out into nature after months of hibernation. It might sound like a dream, but Seabear’s founder and mastermind, who, unsurprisingly, also creates stunning visual art, hardly ever sounded this joyous and awake.

“Half Dreams” is not all exuberance though: “I won’t be afraid anymore,” Sin Fang sings on the rather dramatic and majestic sounding “Walk With You”, one of five new tracks he presents on this EP. It’s a haunting tune, a circumnavigation of musical worlds, almost an Icelandic R&B track of sorts, with slow beats, glockenspiel, again many layers of vocals, and bittersweet overtones (or undercurrents), like resolutions for the season to come: let’s not forget how bad things were, how stuck we felt, but it has to change, cannot go on like this.

And it doesn’t: the guitar he picked up rather late – he was already in his twenties – is at the core of the obscurely beeping “Shine For Me”, strummed chords at first to wash over hazy vocals, campfire-style, then vast landscapes busted open, lots of room, again more of that element he’s so in love with: the human voice. Here it shines again, this unique take on (indie) pop that Sigfússon has developed over the last four albums (two solo albums and two Seabear records). In fact, it shines like a freshly done tattoo, some blood mixed in as well, and it’s going to last just as long.

Having recently presented his visual skills in a limited edition book with Múm’s Örvar, Sin Fang (no more Bous, in case you didn’t notice), a collector of prison tattoo designs from Iceland, finishes the new EP with some instantly recognizable “sha-la-la-la” sing-along vocals (“Strange House”) for those hours spent on an ideal, imaginary beach that feels like the year 1962 or 1969, and then, lastly, “It’s Not There”: his take on off-beat stomping, beats made for dancing and chanting, a celebration of “not-quite-knowing” and nevertheless going on, even stronger than before.

A few weeks before “Half Dreams” was finished, there was a flood in the studio where Sin Fang was working on the final mix. (No cat was injured or forced to take a bath, rest assured.) The surprisingly cold water must have washed away the last bit of doubt and uncertainty, only to expose something he knew all along: that honest songwriting serves as the ultimate war paint

Sin Fang - Only Eyes

The fact that Sigfússon did not only write all the music but also was
doing most of the recording and production promises a lot for his
future and “Summer Echoes” conveys the feeling that the real story
has only just begun: and in fact a next Sin Fang album is already
fully written and Sigfússon shows no willingness to slow down.
Summer Echoes will be released on Morr Music in March 2011. A
limited edition Sin Fang 7" featuring the non-album coverversions of
Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide" and Simon & Garfunkel's "The Only
Living Boy In New York" is available as of December 2010 while the
album's first single, "Because Of The Blood/Two Boys" will be out in
February 2011. The artwork for the release was done together with
Sigfússons partner Inga Birgisdóttir.
“I’m cancelling that dinner-and-a-movie tonight so I can listen to this
17 times. How did I sleep on this for so long? How does a band like
Fleet Foxes get on SNL and a band like this not even get to do a TV
on the radio remix? (The lack of facial hair maybe?)
(The artist Andrew Kuo in the New York Times)

Hangover

mugison