Iceland Airwaves

Iceland is an incredible place. It has mountains, volcanoes, hot springs, Sigur Ros, gysers, and waterfalls. One of these is not a geological feature, but a rock band. Out of a tiny population of 320,000, half of which lives in the capital Reykjavik, they manage to produce a massive amount of amazing music. I wish people knew them for this more than their dodgy banks (apparently they now have a greater per-capita national debt than Germany after the First World War). One of the consequences of the economic collapse meant that even battered Sterling is worth something in Islandic Kroner, so I came home from the Iceland Airwaves music festival with a shopping bag full of CDs and vinyl. For those of you who may be interested, below is what I came back with with some links…

Mugison – Mugiboogie
Skúli Sverrisson – Sería
Rökkurró – Það kólnar í kvöld… (It gets colder tonight)
Eberg – Antidote
hjaltalín – sleepdrunk seasons
Lights On The Highway - Lights On The Highway
Hjálmar – IV
Hafdis Huld – Synchronised Swimmers
múm – Sing Along To Songs You Dont Know

And here are a couple of videos, from Eberg and Hafdis Huld. The Hafdis Huld video appears to have had lots of views for some reason, so maybe some people do appreciate Icelandic music after all.