beyond bjork

For a steady number of years, interest and information of Iceland have been steadily increasing. The Sugarcubes started it all. Solo-Björk work put a huge dent in that. Sigur Ros caved in the walls even moreso. The delicate warblings of Múm once again brought attention to the tiny island in the north Atlantic. A number of years ago, I travelled on holiday to Scotland and Northern Ireland, but on the way over, had a two or three day layover in Reykjavik. While it was dreadfully cold and dreary there in late February, I did manage to enjoy my time there and purchased a few items for my listening pleasure. The first Sigur Ros album, Von. The Múm CD they made with the poet Andri Snaer Magnason. A Megas album. Raddir, a great icelandic folk compilation. Some more things were introduced to me over some thick coffee with Paul Lydon, the man behind Blek Ink. One thing was Musikvatur, a one-man band of sorts, a guy and his organ (he also plays in the wonderous Apparat Organ Quartet). Paul gave me a copy of a 7", very homemade in a vinyl bag w/ scrawled crayon on the sticker, and when I spotted a homemade split CD w/ Múm at the rekkid store I had to have it. The CD was accompanied w/ a cartoon book which has never been translated for me (help?) but regardless, its great to look at. All the pages are viewable at Múm's amazing website. This is track 3 from the split CD, the 7inch version of the Musikvatur song. The other tracks are a remix of this song by Múm, a Múm song, and that song remixed by Musikvatur.

Musikvatur - Insert Coin