Hey ho – let’s go and listen to some violent sounding guitars from these Nordic post punks who unfortunately never released their masterpiece Ó ReykjavÃk on a 7″. Why, why, why but why didn’t they do that as some British punk band (whose name just slipped my mind) asked. And what do they sing about? All I can figure out is that one of the tracks have the uplifting title Suicide, but maybe someone who speaks Icelandic can tell us. In my world Icelandic is basicly an older form of Swedish with the addition of the -ur at the end of every word, but I’m not sure if they’re pulling a joke when you look at what the different instruments are called. Trumbuslattur, raddsnurur, gitarslattur and bassaslattur just sounds too good to be true, right?
Iceland have some really weird looking letters that I had a really hard time to figure out how to type, but I think I got them right even if I don’t know how to prenounce them or read it, despite being so simular to Swedish.
Country: Iceland
Year: 1982
Label: Gramm
Format: 7″
Songs:
Sjalfsmorð.mp3
Eitthvað annað.mp3
Bornin þin.mp3
Skitseyði.mp3
Spitze!!!! This is still from their punky days, turned then in a wavie sound but good.
Cool record, I have the Ó, ReykjavÃk 10” from 2010 on Mauerstadtmusik which was released in a limited edition, also great! Vonbrigði is a damn good band, I remember the “Rokk à ReykjavÃk“ DVD where they quite fine at the young age. Excellent, big post!!!
My limited knowledge on Islandic Black Metal tells me that the first song possible means Suicide. That’s also valid for me if I have to listen thru all songs.
Haha, I didn’t expect you to like it, but give the third track a spin. It’s almost close to straight “punk”.
Yes, it was “interesting”. All if this has to do with my aversion to anything from Iceland – an artsy fartsy country. And bo so I kind of sterotyped a whole nation – I know.
I was just in Reykjavik back in May and was lucky enough to see Fræbbblarnir (who were also on that Rokk à ReykjavÃk comp) play live. I had never even heard of them before but they were great. BTW, Icelandic is pretty much 13th century Norwegian.
The Governor is delighted he has his prized new fighting savages, but Titus realizes that anyone bitten by a werewolf is cursed to become one of their kind. He warns the Governor that the werewolves pose a grave threat if increase their numbers. Titus’s reward for challenging the Governor is to be stripped of his rank and thrown into the arena where the beasts’ savagery will be tested.
This is one weird little piece. I had quite an hard time to get into it, but it keeps growing on me. The B-side is much more solid, in my opinion. Thanks a lot, Sir Martin. Upp með Ãslandi!!
Thanks, and I agree with the b-side being the better one.
1982..the year Boss released its popular CE-2 Chorus pedal..and we all got treated to records like this (altho Alex Lifeson of Rush turned his on and left it on for a good 7 years after this)..This isnt the worst ive heard,but production is kinda thin…its no “flames of hell”..Icelands best kept metal secret…or Taugadeildin..who had a synthwave cut on the Northern lights Playhouse comp way back when thats worth hearing..i think its a 7″ also…Thanks for posting just the same!
I was last year in Reykjavik and at the flea market nearby the Harpa (the new big concert hall) I bought a copy of the Vonbrigdi ‘O Reykjavik’ 12″ep on the Berlin based label Mauerstadtmusik from a guy, who sold records there.
After I bought the record he tolds me, that he was the singer of Vonbrigdi, so he had to sign the record and I bought the other two copies he still had, too. He signed it again and I gave it to friends here in Germany a few weeks later. Nice guy, indeed.
You can see the record here:
http://www.discogs.com/Vonbrig%C3%B0i-%C3%93-Reykjav%C3%ADk/release/2459320
Just 500 copies, I guess, and although I’m living Germany, too, I have never seen a copy here in a record shop.
Speaking of cool record shops in Reykjavik, you must visit ‘Lucky Records’, which has a great variety of Icelandic Punk records, too.
And the movie Rokk i Reykjavik is an all-time classic documentation about the Punk uprising in Reykjavik in 1981.
I have a copy of the 1st Vonbrigdi 7″ep, too, and it’s a cool record, if you are into Post-Punk.
Obviously they are heavy influenced by Killing Joke, which is not bad at all.
The language? To my surprise I could understand a lot, similar to old Norwegian and even German.
I have put Bornin Pin on so many mixtapes. I can’t get enough of that guitar interplay during the chorus!
I was in Reykjavik recently. It is indeed an artsy fartsy country and my sense is that the biggest current-day “independent” label is Icelandair, but I did have a good time. Although my two-year-old son was undoubtedly rooting for me, my wife was pleased that I failed to lure any Icelandic pussy back to my room at the Salvation Army. Though not as warm as a what I wanted on my little sex-tourism adventure, the cozy blanket that was served with my beer on an outdoor patio was a nice touch. The bad Seattle grunge cover band was nowhere near as good as Vonbrigði, but of course that’s far from a ringing endorsement.
As far as my adventure, my luck was better in Amsterdam, but that was because I ran into an ex-girlfriend from New Jersey.
It’s got to be something like:
ð in THis
þ in THink