LUCKY OLD SUN

Listen to LUCKY OLD SUN (Live in studio) by Ólöf Arnalds.

I became aware of Ólöf Arnalds midway through last year after she released her solo debut. It kinda knocked me sideways with it's simplicity and beauty. Nearly a year on and with some perspective i can honestly say that for mine, it's the best album of the past 15 years. Iceland's biggest news paper, Morgunbladid, voted Ólöf's "Vid og Vid" the best Icelandic album of 2007, accompanied by the following words: "On 'Vid og Vid' Ólöf Arnalds opens her heart and lets us in. The music is delicate but never pretentious, the lyrics are tender and the performance altogether prominent, especially the broken vocals. An incredible emotional and warm record which is sure to leave its traces." (Morgunbladid)

I first heard Ólöf cover Lucky Old Sun by Johnny Cash at a 12 Tonar instore during the Iceland Airwaves. Since my dodgy point and shoot camera made a shit sound recording I've been pining for a quality audio version of the track. As she shares a rehearsal space with Amiina, we had the good fortune of using one of their million dollar microphones.

I recorded a couple of sessions with Ólöf while I was in Reykjavik and this was taken from the first. She told me on the way to the studio that she'd recently played a gig where her entire set was comprised of country covers. On that tip she also played a kicking version of Hank Williams Please Don't Let Me Love You along with Neil Diamond's Solitary Man and some new originals.

Since we're winding this series up and it's a family affair, I thought I'd bring in Ólöf's young cousin, Ólafur Arnalds. As well as playing drums in a death metal band, Ólafur happens to make pretty lush classical music with his string quartet. As covers are the order of the day, here's his cover of a Death Cab For Cutie tune.

I hope you've enjoyed the week's tunes. I have no doubt you'll be hearing a lot more from the musicians herein.

These tunes were recorded for an Iceland Music Monthly radio show that i'm set to start producing and presenting soon. The video's are a spin off from the Iceland Airwaves Podcast series that I've been making since 2005. An exhaustive list of the videos from that series can be found here.

Heck, since I'm on a roll, why not have a listen to me talking up the current music scene in Iceland on Zan Rowe's morning program on Australia's Triple J

You'll hear tracks by FM Belfast, Seabear, Hjaltalin, and today's featured artist, Ólöf Arnalds.


Photo: come out and play, by Arnþór Snær.

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.

IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN

Listen to IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN (live outside his studio) by Benni Hemm Hemm.

(Just to be clear, that's Gordon Lightfoot's In The Early Morning Rain!)

Benni Hemm Hemm has been a fave of mine for a good minute and it's taken me a few visits to Reykjavik be able to organize a session with him. Benni was kind enough to let me come by a little later than we'd planned as i was being fed an outrageously good Chicken Penang curry by FM Belfast's Árni Vilhjálmsson. It turns out that Benni was in a teenage rap group with Árni called Motherfuckers In The House (MITH). By all accounts Benni was a blazing drummer before he followed Dave Grohl's lead in fronting the band. But I digress.

I've selected the second of four tunes that Benedikt H. Hermannsson and Róbert Sturla Reynisson played for me later that evening. I asked Benni if he performed any covers and he said that they'd performed a Gordon Lightfoot tune that I wasn't schooled on. After a quick internet search and lyric printout, the fellas nailed this first take. You may also want to check the first song they played, titled Whaling In The North Atlantic which Benni plans to record for his upcoming album.

Here's the video of today's selection:


Photo: colour scheme, by Stuart Rogers.

BEAUTY

Listen to BEAUTY (Live in her Reykjavik lounge room) by Lay Low.

The country-blues of Lay Low is next up in our week long live series from Reykjavik. Like most who made the Easter weekend pilgrimage to Ísafjörður for the Aldrei Fór Ég Suður (I Never Went South) festival, Lovisa Elisabet (who records as Lay Low) returned with a nasty flu. She trucked on regardless when I popped by to record her and managed to complete this one song, Beauty, before she realized that her voice was cactus.

As is the case with many musicians in Iceland, Lovisa is not content with playing in just one band. Her other, Benny Crespo's Gang, are renowned for their guitar driven, synthesized-pop-metal-rock stew. Check out their 10-minute jam Conditional Love here.

Be sure to check out the accompanying videos each day as they feature the sound synced from the featured track. So, without any further ado, the video for Law Low's Beauty (live in her Reykjavik lounge room):


Photo: fresh, by Arnþór Snær.

TEENAGE KICKS

Listen to TEENAGE KICKS (Live in Studio) by Seabear.

Howdy. Stuart popping by to bring you a week of new Icelandic tunes. Why? For mine, the music coming out of this far flung island is more compelling, unique and fresh than anything out there right now. I'll spare you my tome on why this is for now and instead let the bands and tunes do the talking.

All five of this week's recordings were made in Reykjavik during the last weekend in March. In a 26 hour period I recorded a few dozen songs with 10 bands. I filmed the sessions with a lo-fi point-and-shoot camera and synced the sound that was recorded and mixed for the most part by the bands themselves.

First up is Seabear. I caught the band in their Reykjavik studio during the recording of their second album. They played me a few songs from their debut, "The Ghost That Carried Us Away." This one, a cover of the Undertones' Teenage Kicks, was the third take after Inga tried a couple of different xylophones. The other songs recorded at the session were Seashell and Cat Piano.

(Late update, from the editor: we don't yet have permission to let everyone download the mp3, which is why the link is back to the youtube of the performance. But you can also still stream the song on the right, like usual.)

(Even later update: Permission granted! You can and should download this live track now, at the usual link above. ...plus, enjoy it all properly punctuated)

I hope to see you back here again this week. Enjoy.


Photo: set speed, by Arnþór Snær.