ÆJI, PLÍS

Listen to ÆJI, PLÍS (live in the studio) by Reykjavik!.

A slight change of pace. I bumped into Haukur, who plays guitar and sings in Reykjavik! one eve while having some hashed fish downtown and he invited me to the band's rehearsal. Turns out they had their friend Jói \7ói recording the session as they were set to go lay down some tracks for their second album the following weekend with famed producer Valgeir Sigurðsson (Bjork, Bonnie Prince Billy).

The track, Æji, plís translates as "Oh, please". Haukur tells me that it is a song that was written about Reykjavík city politics around the time that fine city's majority collapsed. It's a pretty early incarnation of the song and Haukur assures me that the song has shaped up a bit since we recorded it.

This band puts on possibly the best live show you'll ever see. I've got a very good feeling that this next album will put them well and truly over the top and I'm not the only one. As Valgeir's Bedroom Community label mate Ben Frost pointed out to me a couple of nights later over a Tapas meal of Puffin, Foal, and Kangaroo, "If I was in A&R, I'd just sign that band already and go live on the beach in the Caribbean". Word to that.

Side note - Reykjavik! share their rehearsal space with a few other bands including Skakkamanage (check the spatial déjà vu here), Amiina, Ólöf Arnalds, and FM Belfast).


Photo: entity, by Arnþór Snær.