It’d help musicians if the music press they read would shake up the trad cannon now and then, question the official past more, start ruling a few things OUT rather than just waive all the same old classics through the gates to be arranged & neutered into the same mutually-re(v/f)erential lists and hierarchies. A shake up of that order’s not gonna happen any time soon (rubs forefinger & thumb together, rolls eyes), but it’s gonna have to if indie rock wants a way out of its current political/musical/sexual/lyrical holding patterns. With an at-least-slightly-cockeyed vision of the past (and that’s gonna be found thru writers who feel like the past is worth fighting over, not just for alphabeticising or ranking) retroism needn’t be a problem, I love plenty of impossibly dated music but only when I feel like I’m hearing a human being with a reason to be doing this, not just a fucking muso with the taste/learning required to earn ‘the right’ to do this. When mind-numbingly predictable sources are blended in a way that gives next-to-nothing of the people involved, if you feel as you’re listening that what was in mind was not art or expression or truth but simply the unctuous clever-clever stacking up of taste to the point where personality is voided, then I’m sorry, that’s a shitty motivation to make music and I see no reason why I should have any motivation in listening to it. Nothing to say and, fatally, nothing to sound out, just cross-referencing, filing, no failures in technique but a massive fatal failure of spirit that thus keeps Peace tethered to their sources, unable to add anything, doomed to be a grab-bag, a precis of an era thankfully long gone. Fucksake, I remember where I was at the early 90s student-bop much of ‘In Love’ tries to replicate. I was sat on the steps pointing my plastic pistol at these future captains-of-industry fantastising killingthese motherfuckers. I knew then that they were a closed club and they’d end up running tings. No fucking change at all. Look at them being interviewed. Just look for a second.
It’s one of those pieces that once you’ve read it, you begin to notice that everywhere you look and hear, you´re surrounded by mediocre dross, pimped and packed to you as something that matters. And as for those bands themselves… you know who you are…..
As for me…. I’ve filed a mental note saying “Must try harder”
PS – Listened to the album yesterday. I can really see where he’s coming from with this. Everything is a life of a lift of an old tune that you can hear on Q radio or something. Abject blandness…
Well there were some delays in publishing (Mostly due to half the staff dying of gout, followed by a wildcat infestation), but finally my interview with Olaf Bender of Diamond Version & Raster Noton for the Grapevine is up for all the world to see!
Overall it was a fine chat with Olaf. Tiny guy, but very sharp mind. found myself all the time going “Don’t say anything stupid Cluness!” But despite the differences in language he was very convivial and accommodating.
Also have to thank (Although he almost certainly won’t be reading this) Warren Ellis and his speech on improving reality that he gave last year. It was here that I learned of that famous quote from Marshall McLuhan he used in the speech that popped into my head when Olaf & I were taking about history and technology. At least it made me look as if I knew what I was talking about. Have a butchers for yourself…
Remember my post a couple of days ago about musicians getting paid for their performances? Well if you had, then you would have seen the now classic rant from Harlan Ellison at the end, simply titled “Pay The Writer.”
Ah fuck it, I’ll put it back on here, because it still makes me smile every time I watch it.
In a rather fine piece of synchronicity, the DV newspaper posted last Friday that Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen, former music writer for the national newspaper Morgunblaðið, was advertising on his Facebook profile for people to come and write album and live reviews for the paper. That nice isn’t it?I may even brush up on my Icelandic to give everything 5 out of 5 stars.
But as with everything, there was a catch, the catch being that the paper wouldn’t be paying you for your pieces. Instead, Arnar stated, you would be an unpaid “intern.” Oh but don’t worry, you will get your concert tickets and the albums “for free.” Um, okay….
Naturally this brought out a few really sarky comments from such luminaries as Gríimur Atlason, and Borko asking to write headline and privatisation news for free. One asked “Why doesn’t Davið Oddsson just do it?” It seems now that the Facebook post has been deleted.
Now Arnar Eggert is alright by me in many ways. His writing is fine (I´m currently at page 24 of his book ‘Tónlist Er Tónlist,’ even with Google Translate!), and I have no qualms with the guy himself. But I would be lying if I didn’t find this a little disappointing. Not from him, but from the paper itself. These days interns are becoming a thorny issue in many places, with the use of interns by many companies now pretty much standard practice. Even The Grapevine uses them (They’re hired for 3 months and they do get paid a stipend, but alas not that much. Many use it as a chance to have a working trip to see Iceland and do some cool shit here). If they are well-managed, they can often offer young people a chance to train and to gain some kind of experience in their chosen field. I’ve even seen that Resident Advisor have advertised for an intern during their summer stint at Ibiza. That sounds like the best fucking working holiday in the world!
But increasingly the situation is being abused by companies everywhere as a stopgap to plug holes in their workforce, using people to work long hours of unpaid work for 3 months or longer, with little in the way of actual future prospects at the end of it all. It’s gotten to the point where UK MPs are trying to change the law to allow interns to be paid for their work.
It seems that Morgunblaðið is on the bare bones of its arse in terms of money and personnel (The DV report cites a former writer who states that the paper has cut everything down to the bare minimum) so they’re obviously looking to get people to write any old stuff for them for free. But like expecting musicians and DJs to play for nothing, this just devalues the worth of any writing that’s printed. As the age of digital culture arose, it was supposed to usher in a new era of democratised prose, away from the old world of newspapers. What actually happened was it ushered in the reign of numerous music/culture/news sites that, because they made no money, spun the “We can’t pay you for what you write, but it will be good exposure,” line to simply get free content. But all it did was decimate the amount that paid writers would actually receive. I mean, why should you PAY a writer, when there are hundreds of schmucks willing to write any old shit for free? And remember, Morgunblaðið aren’t some small internet zine, but the oldest and most established paper in the country. (If it wasn’t trying to be a mouthpiece for the Independence party, then maybe more people would buy their papers. Just a thought).
And anyway, why the fuck would you want to write for Moggin for free anyway? For training on how to be a music writer? Pah! The simple fact is that writing about music is frankly one of those cultural jobs that requires very little in the way of actual experience. If I’m going to do it for free, I would rather do it on my own time in my own way (I have written for other sites, but these are either for ones that I read, or they are run by good friends).
Of course everyone and their dad has an idea on what makes a good music writer, or what makes good music writing. I get people’s opinions on it all the time, whether I want it or not. We even get musicians writing letters to the paper about it. Many on this Island, for example, still think you need a degree in musicology or some music training (You don’t, but it might help I guess), or that what gets written in the Icelandic press is the gold standard (It isn’t, and I include myself in this).
(Funnily enough, when people tell me their opinions and I ask them what music writing they often read, apart from the local press, most just offer blank faces. That says a lot.)
The truth is, you don’t need any of this to be a good music writer, trust me (Well having a professional attitude helps, but it’s not a perquisite). All you really need is a real enthusiasm for what you are writing about. And a bit of a clue. Not much, but enough to be able to see past the crap that does get talked about music and be able to articulate what a piece of music means to YOU. It´s your opinion you are giving, not the musicians, so make sure it’s true to yourself. If your writing is good and it’s ambitious enough, then Moggin, Grapevine, NME or whatever magazine you hawk your wares to should be delighted to pay you for your efforts. If they waste your time with stuff like “experience”and “exposure,” then politely thank them for their time and say no thanks. Then curse their twisted hearts to the bowels of hell.
That’s not to say there aren’t any hints or tips that can provide some kind of clear path to getting it done decently. So for any aspiring writers, here are some essential tips that have been passed around by many people in the know. All of these tips are gold, AND least they are entertaining to read.
Everett True’s Advice for Aspiring Critics, and You write to make an impact: A tribute to Steven Wells – Everett True has been disparaged by some I know as “that old guy who used to write the NME,” but he’s one of my favourite writers still out there. I don’t agree with quite a few of his music choices actually, but his writing is entertaining and more importantly, passionate. And that’s what matters.
The Neil Kulkarni guide to being a record-reviewer – Like Everett, Neil has written for many publications over the last 20 years, even when his acerbic style fell out of favour with the “we’re chums with the stars,” style of most mainstream music magazine. Check out his blog where he posts old (And new) pieces.
Finally for the high-end pseuds, below is a nice guide by Tony Hetherington that he posted in The Wire magazine a couple of years ago, which is a good read.
NOW REMEMBER THE FINAL RULE – A WRITER WRITES. GO OUT THERE AND WRITE! YOU DO NOT NEED ANYONE’S PERMISSION TO DO IT!
When you put the bands on was there a policy of who you booked, or was it just your own internal logic?
JG Wilkes: I remember Keith was saying lets book Whitehouse at the club and I looked up at the calender and I was like, “It’s a bank holiday Sunday,” and it’s when you get a few disco betties down and all that… and I phoned you back up and I was like, that’s a Bank Holiday and… that’s fucking genius… you know, if you ever wanted an insane night….
JD Twitch: I remember these two totally working-class Glasgow girls – 18, 19, looked like they were in the wrong club; looked like they would never into what we were doing. This girl comes up and just as Whitehouse has finished and I go, “Oh here we go, she’s gonnna give me a load of abuse for what the fuck was that about,” and she was, “That’s the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve never heard anything like that ever. where can I buy a CD?” On the other hand you’d have people you’d think that would be really into it just getting so angry.
JD Wilkes & JD Twitch of the Optimo club, (We love the smell of Napalm in the morning: Interview with Optimo, LOOPS Journal, Issue 1)
You know, I went to Optimo quite a few times in the late ’90s during the last years of uni when I lived in Glasgow. Very weird club night, rather mental especially as it was on a Sunday, the loneliest of all clubbing nights (It’s not the new Thursday). Even though I was in my early ’20s it was the very first time I’d actually seen people having sex in the open and not giving a metaphorical fuck (in the men’s toilets no less). It was also the first time I would hear some truly weird DJ mashes, such as taking guitar sounds from Nirvana and placing them with Detroit techno. Not the riff to “Smells Like…” mind you, more like the rumbling bits from “Negative Creep.” Blew my mind it did.
Before I go further a major caveat here – Many of the DJs in Iceland are really good at what they do and they work very hard at their craft. You could say that we’re spoiled a little for choice, eh?
But are we? To be honest you really don’t hear that much crazy stuff being played that much these days, do you. Or at least things getting mixed up in intriguing ways. It´s certainly felt that way to me over the last 12 months. Oh there are DJs who definitely know their stuff and get to mix it up, mainly because they simply are able to do pretty much what they want (Maggi Lego, KGB, the boys from Breakbeat.is and a few others), but with many others, you get this nagging sense of music as background wash, just something to nod your head/tap your feet with while having a pint while seeing people and being seen.
Mind you, can you blame them? After all Reykjavik doesn’t have a club culture right now, more a bar culture instead. And there’s a difference.
Meanwhile in lieu of me rambling on, here’s a fine mix from SURGEON at the boiler room from late last year. Some really shitty dancers I know, but the music is immense, and he too uses Whitehouse to proper effect (Track listing can be found HERE).
“Goth, industrial, the hard-edged experimental fringe of post-punk: it’s hard not to be continually amazed at the cavernous drum sounds, strafing synths and insane reverbs to be found on those sorts of records, if only on an occluded B-side instrumental or on one album track from an otherwise terrible album. But the sonic is only part of it—probably the biggest draw to that kind of music, as with the doom stuff, is the presence, sometimes a surfeit, of content, of story. I’m talking about records rich with verbal and visual allusions, a suggestion and maybe even a promise of meaning. Of course there can be presence, and weight, in absence—on first encounter the blank, wordless presentation of, say, an SND record is every bit as seductive and absorbing as a Christian Death lyric sheet—but I suppose I’d become a little bit jaded with that less-is-more approach, with minimalism as a way of life, and I wanted a return to filigree and shadow.
“What, I wondered, had happened to overreaching? I suddenly felt nauseated by the dance culture I hitherto considered myself a part of, one whose sense of its own forward-thinking masks a top-to-bottom conservatism and a fear of the mildest idiosyncrasy, let alone unabashed personal expression. There’s no risk or transgression, not right now, in calling your track “B15587″ or, you know, “Wad,” however good the music might be. Nobody grills a house or dubstep producer on what their music is actually about, because we know from the outset it’s not about anything, and nor do we expect it to be. But after a while you begin to crave content, don’t you? At this point in my life I want to be provoked, I want to be romanced, I want to be made to feel stupid and confused all over again.
“I think—no, I know—it was Greil Marcus, in one of his frightfully earnest essays about punk, who wrote of music that could change the way a person performs his or her commute, and connect that act to every other, thereby calling the person’s entire way of life into question. I’m not yet immodest enough to suggest that Blackest records do that, not by a long stretch, but that’s the aim, the ambition and it’s the only one that really matters. When I listen to so much contemporary music, not least house and techno, I feel it couldn’t be further from that—it’s cosy, it’s ordered, it’s unsurprising, and it seeks to reassure the listener rather than unsettle or disconcert them. Too many engineers and not enough artists are making music today, as I never tire of complaining.
“But all that said, dance music—better to call it body music, lest the wallflowers and armchair enthusiasts feel excluded—remains of the utmost importance to me. My interest in virtually everything else is refracted through that. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to hear a new club record that has something novel to say, or at least says something familiar in a novel-seeming way—but that happens once, at best two or three times a year. 4/4 techno as a functional party music is timeless and inexhaustible—it quite simply works—but seems rare that it’s actually challenging or dangerous. I mean, does it tell us anything of the way we live or the way we ought to live?”
“Despite being known for techno, you’ve talked about your love of other types of music, from post-punk, to hip hop and electro. With people today ransacking the internet for different sounds to make music, are we moving away from the puritanical idea of what electronic music is?
“Well if that’s the case, it’s a shame that many internet portals are playing minimal, uninspired, ketamine-house music then. Most of the music I get is from the artists themselves. I’m not even sure if their stuff makes it to Beatport. But there are some incredible artists out there on the edge of the genre, like Mazzula for example.”
You know, I’ve sometimes had very similar discussions in the last 6 months with friends and other people within Iceland’s electronic scene that have run along the lines to the quotes above (Though not quite as eloquent). As I said in my review of 20112, while there were some high points, overall I was just finding a lot of electronic music in Iceland to either be lacking something, or that it wasn’t playing enough stuff that was occurring outside these shores that was really interesting me a lot…
I was shocked to read your critics about my album ‘XXXXXXX.’ I have never heard of you before, I dont know WHO you are but obviously you are an angry Brit we let into Iceland. Your ruthless, unsupported and injurious comments are way beyond reasonable critics and clearly a breech of Icelandic injury laws.
So you dont like Eurovision? You think I am stealing Sabrinas song? I Will disprove you in court, my song is actually better and I admit there is a series of the same chords in the chorus but that doesnt make it the same melody. And Thank you for your comparison to Robert Miles. What an honor. However it is the melodies that count and he does not own the genre of piano techno pop. If you have any musical educational background which you probably dont, then you should know this.
I have lived and worked in the UK for 2 years and recognize the language you are using, However this is not the kind of language that is acceptable in our country and I am certainly not going to go down to your level.
Do you have any comments before my lawyer proceeds?
Regardstry
Mr. X Butthurtz
Man, imagine if i said that i REALLY didn’t like it!
Yes, 2012 is finally dead and over, and (As I also said this time last year), I’m glad that it’s past us. 2011 was hard but 2012 was truly a slog. Death, depression, writers block (again), threats of legal action, sunburn, psychotic felines in the area. fights, illness, busted faces, bruised egos, and a lack of decent tea. Amazingly, I almost walked from all of this stuff, twice!
And what for? To be honest I’m not sure myself. Frankly, a lot of the time Iceland doesn’t really deserve any decent music writing (If they did get it, they’d only just ignore it, totally miss the point, etc). But you still carry on, plugging away, being a boring nerd (I know this because my friend Katharina told me yesterday, “You are such a fucking nerd!”). But as long as i still get a thrill out of seeing bands smash up their shit at the end of a gig, or hearing a record that actually made feel something strange and scary inside, then there is still a reason to actually care, to give a damn, to still throw everything into it.
This post will be too big for doing a review of teh entire WERLD, so instead I’ll link to other reviews here, here, here, here, here , here, & here. I state that I agree with 78% of what was said on these posts (Nothing truly ground breaking, the need for more bangers, the rise of the new boring/normal in indie, shithole politics, the decline of the “Album” and the rise of the proper EPs). But fuck you guys, l LOVED Blawan and Boddika’s output this year!
So as for Iceland? well, let’s keep this simple and to the point. Pros and minuses, etc….
THE PROS
Live Music: There were some brilliant, intense live music moments in 2012 that I was lucky enough to see. Such highlights included seeing underground metal/noise from the likes of MASS, Hylur and Norn at Hemmi & Valdi of all places. Saturday at the Eistnaflug festival (Muck were brilliant, as they were all year). Ben Frost (hearing from outside, it was packed) trying to destroy Kaffibarinn with his soundwaves. Slayer, Melvins and more at the ATP I’ll be your mirror in London. Seeing Reykjavik!, Nova heart, and Legend at Airwaves. Seeing some great music at Harpa with the inaugural Tectonics music festival, AMFJ at Undiraldan, and Dirty Beaches. Also worth a mentions is Beatmakin Troopa’s new live set up, which was really good at his album release gig at Cafe Rosenborg. But out of all of these, the truly defining live moment of 2013 was seeing I Adapt in a one-off gig at Eistnaflug. I still get tingles when i think back on it. whooooo….
Taktabrot: 2012 saw Breakbeat.is getting it together in crowd-sourcing a lovely book of their poster/club night history. Then on top of making the book, they went on further in getting the mighty Blawan to come up to Iceland and play. And he played BANGERS all night. Amazed to hear some of the “old guard,” who hadn’t heard him before being a little confused as they thought he was Dubstep. But i didn’t care. I was raving through it all for hours and was bloody knackered at the end of it. Been a while since I actually got a true buzz from that.
METAL!!!!: Some really good things going on in the metal scene this year. Bands were getting signed up by non Icelandic labels, while Celestine blasted our spines again with their latest album. Beneath was almost as punishing with ‘Enslaved By Fear,’ and it was really wonderful seeing Angist finding their sound and blossoming blackly live. I want big things from them this year. Also, realising Sólstafir’s ‘Svartir Sandir’ as the new standard in driving music while on holiday travelling through the West Fjörds, Fuck, I was almost prepared to give the likes of Skámöld and Dimma an easier time in 2012. OK, I did say almost.
The People IRL: 2013 was spent using the internet in weird and wonderful ways to build up proper human based networks that naturally ended up spilling over Into Real Life. For example, 2012 was when i met the imperious duo of Joseph “The Outer Church” Stannard, and Jonny “Exotic Pylon” Mugwump for the first time. And both were lovely gents to a fault. 2013 will be spent trying to hook up with them again in some fashion. Then there was the likes of meeting/interviewing Oren Ambarchi and John Tilbury at this year’s Tectonic festival. Both were lovely, engaging, enthusiastic people – and it was rather invigorating meeting, in John, a proper old school socialist who was engaged in music, culture and politics the way he was. My father in law would have likely called him a communist or something! It was also a year where we met some lovely writers who came to Iceland to cover Airwaves for the Grapevine. As I mentioned in my Airwaves’12 review, I had initial misgivings about this, but they rose to it all by the fact that we simply asked them “Write what you want. Be honest. have a great time.” and it really showed. Also speaking to musics/producers and other fans in neo-geographical support network that allowed me to source out some really weird, exciting music, and may allow for some intriguing things for musicians in Iceland and abroad this year. On top of this were good local friends such as Rebecca, Catherine, Aðalsteinn, Ragnar, Katharina, Dabbi, Haukur, Bikir, Paul, Palli and a whole host of others that helped me stay on track and not completely lose my mind.
Surprises: There were some musical moments that actually surprised me in 2012 and while it’s still perplexing to hear me say such things from my lips, I found myself really happy to put it down on record. For example, if you had told me 12 months ago that I would be praising Hjaltalín and stating that ‘Enter 4′ was album of the year, I would have punched you in the face, then told you to fuck off. But it’s true! It soars far and away over everything else that was released this year. Also – I really loved ”Ekki Vanmeta,” the opening track to Pascal Pinon’s ‘Twosomeness.’ There, I’VE SAID IT (Can you please stop teasing me about this John?)! Finally, there was Moses Hightower showing many Icelandic rappers and R&B singers how to be funky with the Icelandic tongue.
THE CONS
- Harpa looking and sounding great, but pretty much sucking all the culture from the whole area, as if it were a Wal-Mart death star.
- The slow cultural hollowing out of 101, as the impacts of increased tourism began to make its presence felt with the closing of NASA and the death sentence being passed on Hjartagarðurinn and the surrounding buildings, including Faktorý. Some people have spoken out against this, but when you have Promote Iceland (Whose remit was passed as law by Parliament!) wanting 2 MILLION tourists to Iceland by 2016, then you know it’s only going to get worse.
- A lot of Ho-Hum “indie” releases that were nice, but sounded all smoothed out, flat, and had absolutely nothing spellbinding, deep or fundamentally exuberant to it. As another piece pointed out, this music doesn’t contain aesthetic progress or socially-oppositional ideologies many people used to associate with “Indie.” It’s music as comfort food plus status. And that really doesn’t spin my wheels to be frank.
- Apart from a few releases, live moments, and some really good DJ’s who definitely know their stuff, a lot of electronic music made and played in 2012 was actually very underwhelming. It just didn’t… excite me in the way that I hoped for. When I wrote 12 months ago about the Helga compilation and the creation of Möller records, I hoped that this would be the beginning of some really good shaking up across the board with some REAL energy being felt in the music (And I still think this will happen), but it kind of just felt like everything in terms of energy and aesthetic was just going round in circles. I hope 2013 gets me more excited.
- The Obsession with Icelandic media and some commentators with album places and sales of Icelandic bands abroad as a marker of a bands quality (“See? Of Monsters and Men reached number 5 in the US! Not even Björk could do that!” implying that somehow they are better than Björk).
- tthat despite being touted as a very technologically advanced nation, packed full of smartphones, iPads, and high-speed internet, Iceland is just as parochial as everyone else, using it for only for FB, 9GAG and being blowhards on the DV comments section. Take the news that Iceland bought 700 million ISK of music in 2012, but only 3% of it was digital. Although the % has been disputed (apparently it’s closer to 10-15%) this is way too low. and of course discussions about it brought out the usual self-righteous comments about vinyl Vs digital, failing to take into account that the music that Icelanders can buy in the shops is VERY limited. Even the range of music you can download illegally on deildu.net is so narrow in its scope!
- The increasing groupthink experienced in a lot of scenes here. Well it’s always been there, but it felt stronger than usual in 2012. The GV lost two music writers this year (One who had been doing it for years, the other who was starting out). The reason? They were also musicians and they felt that if they expressed an honest opinion on other bands’ albums, then this would harm their chances and their “careers.” How fucking sad is THAT? A good support network is needed for any scene, but I’ve just stopped listening to people who tell me that I should be bigging up all Icelandic music because the scene needs it/because they’re our guys/That I can’t say what I want to say, etc.
There are many, many other things that I could bring up (Such as Facebook and other social media becoming clogged with Occupy-style picture memes along the lines of “Iceland is a utopia! They did all this stuff! Why is this not being televised by the MSM? Herpa derpa derp”), but it would be unfair to get you to wallow though all of that. I’d lose the last 15 readers that i actually have for this blog!
So, onwards and upwards I say, as I hold my breather hope that 2013 will present me with some real moments that will make me go “HOOO YEAH!!”
Yup now that the year is over, its time for the annual flogathon that is DA END OF YEAR LISTS. Despite all our moaning, we all love lists really. It’s a chance for us anally retentive types to get all obsessive about placings and numbers and stuff, as well as it sparking a healthy fight. argument, discussion in the pub about it all.
So not ambling, no explanations (You seriously don’t need any by now). Here is my list of what was Icelandic in 2012 that made me go, “Hmmmm…..”
FEELING
REALLY FEELING
LIKE, OMG, IT´S AS IF THEY OPENED ME UP, DIRECTLY INSERTED THE MUSIC STUFFS INTO ME, AND CONVERSED WITH MY SOUL, ETC, ETC….
Or… How Hjálmar became one of the most powerful bands in Iceland without you realising it….
So, as we approach the end of the slog of a year that’s been 2012, it’s fairly customary to look back at the people who were the main movers and shakers within the Icelandic music scene in the last 12 months. Now i could mention guys like dancing bear cubs Retro Stefson, or maybe even faux folk ferrets Of Monsters And Men. But if we’re being really honest there was only one person who you could really say came to defining Icelandic music in 2012, Step forward Mr. Ásgeir Trausti Einarsson!
Man, to think that back in March he was toiling away unnoticed and unloved in the band The Lovely Lion at this year’s Musiktilraunir unsigned bands competition. But in the space of a little over 6 months, he’s become nearly omnipresent in Iceland, His first 2 singles, “Sumargestur,” and “Leyndarmál” received blanket radio coverage through the summer. His debut album ‘Dýrð Í Dauðaþögn’ was released in September and it all blew up as the Icelandic media went totally giddy over it (Local DJ Andrea “The White Witch” Jónsdottir, gave it 9.9 out of 10 for example), Comments like “Iceland’s Bon Iver,” “The new Mugison,” and “Voice of a generation,” were banded around with hushed reverence. His music has clogged up both the song and album charts in Iceland for weeks, has been nominated for the Nordic Music Prize, and has received SIX nominations in the upcoming Icelandic Music Awards. All the while, his songs are being translated into English by “Friend of the Icelandic music scene,” John Grant, and now it’s now looking as if ’Dýrð Í Dauðaþögn’ will break the 20,000 sales mark before Christmas (Which apparently is a big fucking deal up here).
Wow! Even when he takes part in a frankly shitty TV collaboration with Blazroca, it still manages to rise up to near the top of the charts!
Um… right…
Now there’s no denying the guy does have talent, with a fine falsetto voice that makes some ladies go, “Aww, he must be so deep and brooding!” when he sings. The album’s production meanwhile feels bright, confident with a definite nod to what’s happening outside of Iceland, although for my taste his songs and persona feel pretty much like beta-bro pop that’s been formulated by a focus group (Rumours persist that he’s actually a first level Weyland-Yutani self sustaining android unit, and that if you cut him he bleeds funny milky white stuff). But it still begs the question – How in the hell did he get so big so quickly? Talent gets you far, but not THAT far, so fast.
As with everything in life and culture, if you want to see what lies at the heart of a good industry hype, then you look beyond the puppet to see who’s pulling the strings.
Lets see… Ásgeir Trausti’s general biog is that he’s from a musical family (His brother Þorsteinn Einarsson is from the band Hjálmar, and his dad Einar Georg Einarsson is a music teacher who wrote the lyrics for the album), and that he went with his demos to Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson (Or Kiddi in Hjálmar), who was so impressed that he decided that he wanted to produce his album at Hljóðriti, the studio he runs in Hafnarfjörður.
But if we take a look at who are his managers, then things start to get interesting. Ásgeir has two managers, the first being … Kiddi in Hjálmar! OK, this isn’t necessarily hinky. I mean he loved this music so much that he decided to manage him, right? But when Asgeir Trausti received his first big break on the Icelandic TV show Hljómskalinn back in April (You can see it here. Ásgeir’s piece starts about 24m30s in), who is that short ginger bearded person who’s introducing him to fellow presenter Siggi Baldursson? That’s… Kiddi from Hjálmar! Yup, Ásgeir’s manager and producer is also a presenter in Iceland’s biggest music show (AKA the chummiest fucking show on Icelandic TV).
But Ásgeir also has a second manager, Kiddi’s wife Maria Rut Reynisdottir. She is (or has been) been involved in the Icelandic cultural scene heavily over the last few years working with Iceland Airwaves, Gogoyoko, the TV series LazyTown, and teaching Project Management at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. Right now she’s on the board of Gogoyoko… and also manages the Icelandic Music Awards.
So to recap, Asgeir Trausti has a management team who present’s Iceland’s biggest TV show on music, who runs once of Iceland’s best and biggest recording studios, who is on the board of Iceland’s most well known music websites, and who also runs the nation’s annual music awards. With this much clout behind him, I’m amazed it actually took him so long to get so famous.
Now Bob, I’m sure many will cry. This is just blatant nastiness. Ásgeir is a lovely guy and his management team are good, hard working, professional people who are doing their best for Icelandic music and for their client the best way they know how. And here’s the thing – they’d be absolutely right. Everything I’ve told you is pretty much common knowledge amongst people in the Icelandic music scene or if it wasn’t, could easily be found by using Facebook and Google in 30 seconds. There is no cover up, or evil illuminati-style plot as such to take over Icelandic music just to put Ásgeir on top of the pile.
It’s all just business. This sort of thing happens all the time in record industries across the world.
Take my homeland, the UK. For a while now there’s been much commentary about class, privilege and access within the music industry and how it, as with the Political establishment, has effectively become a closed shop for people who hail from a heightened social strata. It’ll take too much time to go into with this post (You can read about it in more detail here, here and here), but as Alex Niven comments in the 2012 Wreath Lectures over at the Quietus;
Culture is still a worryingly top-down affair. For all that the neoliberal consensus initiated by Thatcher and continued by Blair and Cameron was supposed to “free up” society after the statism of the post-war years, cultural influence is now more centrally administered than ever. To take just one example, observe the rigid structures currently fencing-in British pop music like a monstrous Meccano set. Despite the best efforts of leftfield stalwarts (such as the present publication, natch), for a majority of people the “alternative” music scene is now more or less reducible to Zane Lowe,Nick ‘Friend to the Stars’ Grimshaw, the corporate festival circuit, Later… With Jools Holland, and the Barclaycard Mercury Prize. A few well-connected PR companies, A&Rs, record execs, and careerist (often privately educated) musicians treat the pop avant-garde as their birthright, while grassroots and bottom-up elements go largely unsupported in the mainstream. Modern pop music began as the ultimate expression of democratic populism in the post-war years, but it is now some way into its decadent, baronial phase. When things have become so damnably hierarchical, it’s no wonder there hasn’t been a society-wide countercultural upsurge in years.
Ouch! Mind you, when the Guardian made Adele the most powerful person in British music back in 2011, it wasn’t so much her as the record execs, pluggers, publishers and managers that working behind the public persona.
Iceland of course doesn’t have such issues of class. Or a big music industry for that matter. But over the last several years, it’s been acknowledged that the Icelandic music industry has had to shape up, get organised, to get “Professional.” Groups such as IMX and You Are In Control were set up help bring out ideas such as brand awareness, marketing strategies, and digital synergy alignment with other agencies abroad to ensure that Iceland’s music culture can compete in the international marketplace. Well intentioned, highly organised and capable people were brought to run these entities (And others such as showcase festival Iceland Airwaves), use the resources they had to hand, and sought to sculpt the Icelandic music scene into something that had a confident, successful presence, that could be sellable to mass culture, allthewhile ensuring that Icelandic musicians also had the right attitude, to do what was needed to be successful, both inside, and outside of Iceland
But today, it seems that there’s a lack of a true cultural agenda in Iceland, or an agenda beyond ensuring the success of each individual artist, or getting as many tourists as possible to Iceland. And it seems that, as in the UK, a small, albeit well organised group of people now pretty much run the whole narrative that is Icelandic music from a centralised viewpoint. At the heart of all of this, without anyone realising it, seems to be a group centred around the Hjálmar/Hjómskalinn/Memfismafian clique who’ve manoeuvred themselves into a position where they now command a fair amount of clout and power, and get to pretty much do what they want. Check out for example, the way they co-opt most of today’s cool hip “indie” musical talent through their TV show, siphoning off their cultural capital to ensure their own relevance, like a bunch of crusty vampires (Except these guys don’t sparkle). Also worth noting for example that while many local bands are working their arses off to get the money for recording, or touring abroad (Often going cap in hand to some arts fund or another), Hjalmar’s Siggi G and the Memfismafian were able to swan off to Cuba to record ‘Okkur Menn Í Havana‘ and pretty much got to play at being colonial overlords while they were there.
And now they have Ásgeir Trausti as the newest member of their troop. In many ways Ásgeir Trausti is not so much the new Bon Iver, or even the new Mugison, but rather the new Mumfords, or the new Jessie J: He is a man with a fair amount of talent that, due to the privilege of who he is and the network of people he has available to him, has experienced a near effortless rise to the top of the Icelandic music heap in less time than it takes to write this blog down. He ‘s managed to go through his life and career without barely touching the sides of experience or hardship.
True, the Icelandic music scene has always been a festering pit of nepotism, favours and unwarranted back slapping. And yes, there has been many a hype been built with other bands in 2012 (Check out the rise of shoegazers Oyama for example). But with Ásgeir Trausti, there is a big difference – his hype has been fully formed from the very beginning and the sheer ruthless efficiency to which this hype has been exercised on the general cultural scene in Iceland has actually been a glorious sight to behold. When you speak with many Icelandic musicians over a pint, Ásgeir’s name occasionally crops up, to which you get a slight pause, then “Yeah…. he’s really well connected isn’t he?”
So for 2012 my prize for Icelandic musician of the year goes to Ásgeir Trausti – Or rather his well placed, capable management team. People, I salute you. You’ve earned it.
(To finish off i thought it would be good to hear something with a slightly stronger resonance on the pains of the human condition. More on these guys later…)
So apparently the Nordic Music Awards nominees were announced some time yesterday. No, i really didn’t know what that was either, but it was apparently set up a couple of years ago to ape the likes of the British Mercury Music Prize, or the Polaris Music Prize, these things being one of the biggest industry hype balloons going on out there – ironic considering that the Mercury Music Prize was set up as an alternative to the hogfest that is the Brit awards (Which are essentially run by the same people!).
Of course the first I knew about it was when the indomitable Birkir Fjalar from Halifax Collect blogged about it yesterday. It’s a good post and i recommend that you all go and read it, mainly because in my inherent laziness, I can’t be bothered reposting the actual short list information here (Also he needs the traffic). You’ll also get to read who he voted for, as he was one of those glorious music industry people who was actually asked for their opinion.
Of course he asked the question:
“Why Bob Seacow of the Shetlands is not in on this… Reasons escape me!”
Well I can explain why I’m never asked to adjudicate in award do’s in a few easy steps.
1) I’m an idiot.
2) I’m an idiot that really doesn’t want anything to do with what amounts to a hideous industry/scene circle jerk.
3) I’m an idiot that, even if I were to be asked for my nominations, I’d probably just do my utmost to troll them and screw with the scoring system.
Looking at the long/short list, it contains the usual names and faces. You’ve got ones that you agree with, some that make you go “Weeeell, I’m not a big fan, but it was certainly popular with everyone, so no surprises there,” and those that make you go “WHAT? Oh no, not them!!” but every short-list has some of that going, and at least the long list had a few more names that I would have certainly voted for (although there were no signs of Legend, Celestine, Valgeir Sigurðsson or Þórir Georg).
Alas, due to the nature of Icelandic album scheduling, there were quite a few albums on the lists had only hit the shops in the past month, mostly being released before, or during Iceland Airwaves to catch the tourist dollar. Despite them being “fresh” to people’s eyes and ears, all that seemed fair enough.
But there was one thing that had my head scratching a bit to say the least – namely why Petur Ben’s album was on the short list of nominations. Now whether or not his album is worthy to be selected musically is one thing (That’s for another post), but it hasn’t actually been officially released in record stores, and has only been available online over the past couple of weeks on Gogoyoko only (According to Frettablaðið, so it would be eligible to be considered for the Icelandic Music Awards). Of course it’s tough if you’re self releasing your music, and gaining a nomination like this will help, but what does it say about Iceland’s music industry when there are so many other albums that at least could have been considered but were left out for something that hardly anyone has heard?
Of course this could have easily fallen into down a rabbit hole of bile, but instead I utilised the POWER OF SOCIAL MEDIA and contacted the judge representing Iceland in the awards (And Officially, “The most powerful man in Icelandic music™”) Arnar Eggert Thoroddsen why the album was on the shortlist. And even more freaky, he replied! This is what he said.
“Hi Bob ). Interesting points. Well, in my opinion, if an artist puts out his album for streaming it’s out there and it could not have been overlooked. According to Pétur, the album has been released digitally and that’s as official as any release format. He can add other formats later. But downloads/streams are as eligible as physical formats in my opinion. As for the long list, there were five of us that put it together and I also sought out points/recommendations from other sources. But I’m chairing it, that’s true. Of course, records that have been out for merely a week or two, it’s hard to put judgement on that, I agree. But we have to look to the deadlines/cut off. If the album is released before that, it’s in the official running. Hope this helps…”
Hmm… seems legit. He’s right of course. If it’s available, even on one site, in one format, before a deadline, then it counts. Just ask Hjaltalíin about this!
I guess it’s pretty much that I come from a dark and cynical land where something like this, while in many ways perfectly fine and above-board, would have certainly raised a few eyebrows. If you take something like this year’s Mercury Music prize, one of the nominations was released fairly close to the deadline, but many of the albums had been out for a while. This allowed them to be disseminated and discussed by music critics/writers/bloggers, and while some of the nominations weren’t big sellers, there at least was some form of consensus reached amongst most within the industry and the press that these albums had some form of quality.
I suppose what I’m wondering out (fairly loudly) is how Iceland’s music industry and our nation’s music writers/critics/bloggers (who are in theory supposed to act as some form of bulwark against needless hype rigging, etc) managed to reach a consensus on this SO FAST before they’ve even had a chance to switch on their laptops and actually write down what it is that makes this album so great to them in the first place! I only received a link to a download review copy of it 10 days ago when the nominations were being made, and have only had a chance to hear it twice.
But what´s done is done, nothing to see here. Good luck to whoever wins, but I don’t think I need to expend any more time on it. But to finish things off, I’ll leave you with an album that was at least on the longlist. In the next few weeks, I’ll probably have to get my head around sorting what were my albums or the year (This will actually be rather tough, and not for the reasons you think…). But this is definitely one of the albums that would make it on the list. When they performed it in a reading room at the Icelandic Cultural House, time almost certainly stood still (I almost remember the air became physically more dense as well). Getting this records is so worth your money when you all get paid this weekend…
I would like to apologise to Alan Licht for misunderstanding his sleevenotes to Harry Pussy’s ‘Let’s Build A Pussy,’ and to thank him for pointing out my error (Letters, The Wire 344). If I’d had the actual sleevenotes to hand, I wouldn’t have made the mistake, but I didn’t I had a file full of MP3s and that’s all. All information about the record beyond what I knew already – including the content of Licht’s sleevenotes – I had to find online and fill in the gaps with guesswork. Licht’s line about the record being Harry Pussy’s “last gasp” is quoted all over the internet; the qualifier that follows, that Licht chides me for ignoring, isn’t.
These days most labels, including Editions Mego, refuse to part with actual copies of the records they would like reviewed. The majority of reviews in Soundcheck are not record reviews, they’re reviews of what writers think records might be like given a certain amount of inconclusive evidence: most usually MP3s and an illiterate press release.
I can see where Mego are coming from. It’s expensive to send out finished copies of releases to all the places where they might be reviewed, and I’m sure that Mego doesn’t need reviews to sell music anyway. Their releases will continue to sell because of the label’s well-deserved reputation for curatorial excellence. However, supplying writers with only half the product inevitably leads to mistakes and misunderstanding. More damagingly, it makes the product look half-baked. It’s hard to be bowled over by a zip file and shitty gloss: even great music, poorly presented, can seem mediocre. Don’t labels have a duty to present their artists in the best light possible? Isn’t that what they’re for? But all too often, artists are nobbled by the people who are supposed to be promoting them, before they’re even out the stable door.
Nick Richardson via email
The above missive is a letter that was published in this month’s issue of THE WIRE by one of their writers after a letter was published 2 months previous from Alan Licht himself, complaining that Nick had completely misread and misunderstood his liner notes for the album.
After reading this, I immediately felt a strong tinge of recognition for Nick’s plight as a reviewer. This week alone, I received a message from a new reviewer to the Grapevine asking if there were any liner notes accompanying a download link for an album I wanted him to review. My reply to him was a rather polite version of “HAHAHAHAHA! you should be so lucky.”
On top of that, just a couple of days ago I had a small e-mail discussion with our Editor overlord-in-chief about another album that I was reviewing, where we were unsure about who was involved in the production duties. In this case, one person who is apparently involved with the production has been a major influence on changing the band’s sound and direction. It would be good to have it confirmed by the band/label the true level of involvement he had.
This is something that’s been brewing for a while now. We do still get CDs and on the odd occasion, a CD with a press release. But now, more and more of what we get from bands is a mere link to download the album in MP3 format. No other info is given to the reviewer apart from what I can parse from the internet for them. and what’s even more depressing is that we’re actually lucky to get this. Some reviewers and blog writers don’t even get that!
It can all get to the point where you get e-mails from bands complaining of mistakes in your review, such as misquoting their lyrics, when all you received from said band was just a download link to their album on bandcamp (This has actually happened).
Now the editor has suggested that I should get in touch with the band/producer in question and get some form of confirmation, But why should I? it does seem like an awful lot of hassle for what is a 2-300 word review. Even though i am the music manager for the Grapevine, I’m not their books. It is all freelance. Same with the reviewers, who get paid a mere pittance to spend their time listening and parsing the level of artistic merit they believe an album has. If I’m being cruel, then it shows me that a band may be a bit blasé about giving their album release their full attention and effort, or that you’re not really giving a shit about us trying to do our work. Either way, it can get a tad frustrating after a while.
Thankfully it hasn’t deteriorated to the point where everyone does this. There are some bands/labels who provide all the info you need for an album review. They also put this info with their Bandcamp/Gogoyoko pages. But if you are an upcoming band or label, and you send us a download link for the album, can you PLEASE at least send a simple doc file containing who was involved with the creation of the album. This would actually go a long way to showing that you care that we have a proper listening experience and get the facts right.
Don’t both sending the lyrics though. As Sindri Eldon once noted, most of the lyrics written in Iceland these days just totally suck.
). Interesting points. Well, in my opinion, if an artist puts out his album for streaming it’s out there and it could not have been overlooked. According to Pétur, the album has been released digitally and that’s as official as any release format. He can add other formats later. But downloads/streams are as eligible as physical formats in my opinion. As for the long list, there were five of us that put it together and I also sought out points/recommendations from other sources. But I’m chairing it, that’s true. Of course, records that have been out for merely a week or two, it’s hard to put judgement on that, I agree. But we have to look to the deadlines/cut off. If the album is released before that, it’s in the official running. Hope this helps…” 
