tiistai 10. huhtikuuta 2007

Aldrei fór ég norður

My Easter shenanigans were greatly overshadowed by excellent success in one of Iceland's national sports, catching a cold. That rendered me nearly immobile, and as a result, I didn't get to make the trip to Ísafjörður's rock festival. Although, everybody I knew had vanished days before too, so I wouldn't have been able to embark on the planned road trip anyways, but would've needed to find alternate travelling methods. I ditched it.

As a secondary result, I don't have much to tell about Icelandic Easter traditions either. What I saw was mostly huge, huge and ornated chocolate Easter Eggs on display at the stores. No mämmi, although Páskaöl might've been rather close, even if in liquid form.

I do not mourn though, for yesterday She had a concert at Laugardalshöll and made it all better. It was an expectedly strange mixture of her old things with a twist and her new things. There was quite a few players in the stage, varying from the brass section to an older man, undoubtedly a musician by profession, who took care of the piano parts with a synthesizer of sorts. And the songs, then. What about a super compressed and gated version of Army of Me? Yes please! Insanely beautiful brass renditions of All is Full of Love and Bachelorette? Don't mind if I do! There were also a couple of songs in Icelandic supported with a harpsichord of sorts, unsurprisingly I didn't know them. Also there was a rather fascinating guest appearance from Antony Hegarty of Anthony and the Johnsons. Definately one of the most inspiring duets I've ever heard.

The new songs seemed quite enchanting, but I couldn't really elaborate much from them. I just believe that Björk fans ought to be in for a real treat in Volta. There was one clear miss though - one of the newer songs made me feel something between frustration and anger. The very generic hip hop style of the song and the even more generic hip hop sounds behind it just didn't compliment Björk at all. That was undoubtedly Timbaland's contribution. Next time, if doing something similar and in need of a producer, she should turn to someone a lot more talented and versatile one. Like, Coldcut or RJD2. For starters.

As if that wasn't a good enough treat, Hot Chip played after Björk. While their music is a little overwhelming and even exhausting when you get exposed to it for longer periods of time, it was also groovy as hell. The amount of head bobbing in the audience seemed like an agreement to me. It was pouring down, but the folks wandering back home seemed in a good enough mood not to care too much.

The Something Random:
- While I never really found Jackass and the likes very funny, this bloke from a Channel 4 show is ace. Legeeetttttt!

The Something Finnish:
- Pitkästä aikaa pitää antaa Yleisradiolle oikein iso käsi. Tuo Pasila on mulle ylivoimaisesti parasta suomalaista televisioviihdettä pitkiin aikoihin. Kaiken kruunaa se, että jaksot näkyypi netistä, vieläpä ilman että henkilöllisyytensä joutuu todistamaan jollakin sähköisellä ID-kortilla, sormenjäljillä, tv-lupamaksukuitilla, verkkokalvoskannauksella sekä postittamalla tämän lomakkeen kolmena kappaleena lähimpään konsulaattiin. Te vaasalaiset toverini: tiedättekö onko Pakkalalla jotakin tekemistä tän sarjan kanssa? Routalemmen hahmosta tulee Näsä niin vahvasti mieleen, että reppeilen jatkuvasti jo on se jännä-fraasin intonaatiolle. Parasta.

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