Through countless formative live performances and the crafting of a collection of superior pop songs, super-youthful Icelandic octet Retro Stefson have mastered the art of moving a crowd to the brink of sheer ecstasy - and keeping it there for as long as they wish. Through their virtuoso pick 'n' mix approach, fusing metal to afro-beat to disco to improv, this ultra-talented party band have created a fresh form of mutant Icelandic pop music that could only exist right at this moment. They hit America for the first time in [...]
![Listen: Enjoyed x Retro Stefson – Teeth [Best Fit Premiere]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4255081_lg.jpg)
Today's instalment in Projekta's continent-crossing Great Escape remix project is in, and it's a doozy. Reykjavik septet Retro Stefson have turned in a sparkling, unabashedly pop-coated rework of Enjoyed 's 'Teeth', complete with off-puttingly skittish kick drum. Retro Stefson are playing three Great Escape shows: 11:30pm on Thursday at Latest Bar, 3pm on Friday at Above Audio ( where you can win a trip to Iceland ), and 7:30pm on Friday at the Green Door Store. You can catch [...]
Reykjavik's indie pop collective Retro Stefson was born out of the ashes of an ill-fated rap group started by lead singer Unnstein Stefansson. The six members (who happen to be former schoolmates) gradually moved to a more pop-oriented sound, while also taking inspiration from world music. Now a fully-fledged band, Retro Stefson have released 2 albums, a handful of EPs and they recently shared a brand new song, "Qween", the first single off their forthcoming third LP. Retro Stefson mix rock influences, low slung bass lines, funk guitars, electronic beats and African [...]
Já podemos ouvir "Qween" , a primeira música do novo álbum dos Retro Stefson , a banda islandesa que mistura sonoridades de diversos locais do planeta dando origem a músicas cantadas em Islandês, Inglês, Francês e até Português. Para quem não conhece a banda, deixo mais uma sugestão: "Kimba" , para ver e ouvir.
Hat man sein Herz ersteinmal an eine Band verloren, wünscht man sich von dieser Band, dass sie sich möglichst niemalsnie verändert. AC/DC, Motörhead oder die Ramones sind auf dieser Schiene jahrzehntelang unfallfrei gefahren. "Ihr seid nicht die Ramones, denkt euch was neues aus", textet die Trierer Punkrock-Kapelle Love A auf ihrem tollen Debütalbum, ein Appel zu mehr Mut und Kreativität! Eine gravierende musikalische Veränderung geht allerdings selten kritiklos an einer Band vorüber (bestes Beispiel in diesem Jahr: Dredg). Als absolut begrüßenswert empfand ich die Erweiterung des musikalischen Kosmos allerdings bei Iron & Wine und Ghost Of Tom Joad. Dass „Black [...]
brand new song by one of the coolest Icelandic bands, Retro Stefson
Frank Yang Calling this "day one" of Iceland Airwaves isn't strictly correct. Though the festival did really start in earnest on the Thursday, there was a fair bit of programming on the Wednesday night and though I was on the fence about leaving the comfort of the apartment late at night, I fell on the side of heading to NASA, one of the festival's main venues, facing onto Austurvöllur square a couple blocks away. The attraction were Iceland's own Of Monsters & Men , whom although a new band - [...]
Last week, from Wednesday until Sunday, Reykjavik, Iceland hosted its annual Airwaves festival. It's an urban festival and a hell of a party, with the city's invariably intimate venues acting in concert to present a slew of shows in a fashion akin to CMJ or SXSW. This year, Stereogum partnered with Iceland Airwaves to curate and present a show featuring the majestic Maryland beauties of Beach House , which meant we got to fly in, stay, and cover the duration of the festival. What follows is a sprawling recap of our week seeing bands and walking around the city. [...]
Next week, Stereogum is putting on a show a little further from the south side of Williamsburg than we're used to: We've teamed up with Bella Union to present a night of music in Iceland's Reykjavik Museum, headlined by the great, Scandinavia-loving American band Beach House. The undercard features some regionally homegrown talent - Borko, Hjaltalín, Retro Stefson - and the event comes as part of this year's Iceland Airwaves festival. Scott and I will be there for our first time, and for the duration, reporting on both the local scene and how it feels to [...]
Icelander Snævar Albertsson goes by the name of Dad Rocks! , and we love him here at The 405. Here's what he had to say about Airwaves 2011: Tell us a little about yourself... My name is Snævar, I'm from Iceland and I live in Denmark. I've been playing in a band called Mimas now for 7 years, and started a solo-career in 2010 called 'Dad Rocks!'. I [...]
Snorri Helgason is a London based Icelandic singer/songwriter who recently released his second album, Winter Sun. Click here to see the video to his song River. Tell us a little about yourself... I'm from Iceland. I'm 26 years old. I just released my sophomore solo album, Winter Sun , in Iceland. I live in London and play and write music for a living. It's morning and I just had some coffee and I am listening to Gene Clark. [...]
Now, I'm not going to pretend that where I live is the best place for the Arts. But as reasonably sized cities go, Nijmegen is rather fortunate. Big art house cinema, the occasional theatre shows coming in, and especially the dance line-up isn't too shabby at the local pop venues. The crown on the cultural year is de-Affaire though. It lasts for seven evenings and admission is free. The line-up is wonderfully eclectic, from folk to dance. The best thing about it though is seeing the same faces every night, most of which you remember from last year [...]
for me Retro Stefson was one of the highlights of Iceland Airwaves last year their brand new video is out now make sure to check them live wherever you can! their Kimbabwe LP will be released in Europe on the 6th of May
Það er bókstaflega allt að verða vitlaust í íslenskum tónlistarheimi. Ekki nóg með að uppskeruhátíð tónlistarmanna, Iceland Airwaves, sé hafin heldur eru flest stærstu nöfnin í tónlistarbransanum annaðhvort að senda frá sér nýja plötu, smáskífur eða nýtt efni á einn eða annan hátt. Meðfylgjandi eru tvö glæný lög frá tveim af vinsælustu sveitum landsins. Njótið vel og til hamingju tónlistaráhugamenn! Retro Stefson - Velvakandasveinn Retro Stefson - Velvakandasveinn FM Belfast - Vertigo FM Belfast - Vertigo [...]
Amadou & Mariam koma með vorið til Reykjavíkur og fylla Laugardalshöllina af fjöri þann 12. maí á opnunartónleikum Listahátíðar í Reykjavík. Parið, sem vakið hefur heimsathygli fyrir líflegan tónlistarbræðing sinn, lék nýverið fyrir Obama við afhendingu Nóbelsverðlaunanna í Ósló og hinni virtu Lollapalooza tónlistarhátíð í Chigaco. Þau koma nú hingað til lands með stóra hljómsveit og sannkallaða heimstónlistarstemmningu sem lofuð hefur verið í hástert og samanstendur af rafmangsgíturum, kúbverskum lúðrum, egypskum ney flautum, sýrlenskum fiðlum, indverskum tablas trumbum og margvíslegum ásláttarhljóðfærum frá Malí. Nú hefur íslenska hljómsveitin Retro Stefson bæst við dagskrá tónleikana. [...]
Hátíðirnar fara alltaf illa með viðhalds- og uppfærslugetuna hjá okkur hér á Rjómanum. Við erum öll að sinna þessu í hjáverkum og oft reynist erfitt að gefa sér tíma til að setjast niður og skrifa eitthvað af viti um tónlist og tengd efni. En nú er ekki annað hægt en að gefa sér tíma því nýtt íslenskt efni þolir enga bið og kallar á feita bloggfærslu án tafar. Hananú! Retro Stefson Unnsteinn og félagar í Retro Stefson eru í stúdíó þessa dagana við upptökur og væntanlegar eru bæði EP [...]
With a name reminding of a radio station in the capital of Northern Ireland maybe it's not that strange it's a secret that they actually are from Iceland. FM Belfast are kind of new to me, but they aren't new to everyone I could tell by 466,123 visitors at their MySpace . They are a fantastic band in all respects; first of all they have an inspirational electro-indie-pop sound and secondly they always put on an explosive, impulsive and unpredictable live show, with anything from 3 to 30 people on stage, always hitting the high notes and [...]
I wanted to start this year out right with an artist I admire and love very much, Ólöf Arnalds . As someone who watches Iceland very closely when it comes to music, it was an honor to have the one and only Ólöf Arnalds answer this week's Kuestionnaire. An Icelandic singer/songwriter who has been active within the Icelandic music scene for quite some time, Ólöf also has been a touring member of Múm since 2003. On January 12th, this soaring songbird will be re-releasing her first album, Við og við [...]
Hailing from Iceland, FM Belfast 'create inspiring electro-indie-pop' - a genre (you say genre I say YAWN ) I usually steer well clear of. However, this remix of their track 'Par Avion' by fellow Icelanders Retro Stefson is actually quite nice. As well as being a highlight of this year's Iceland Airwaves festival , the four-piece apparently also do cover versions of Rage Against The Machine and Technotronic... hmmm. The inspiration behind this song goes as thus: "One very cold winter day there was an article in the newspaper about an [...]
So apparently Iceland is the place to be for new music recently. I'm currently battling an obsession with Lay Low's music, and now I've come across the band Retro Stefson . They're all sorts of poppy wonderful. I want to compare them to Vampire Weekend but I'm not sure I want to make that leap. They have songs in Icelandic, English, and Spanish, and they pretty much amazing. They just really seem like they're having a blast, which is really awesome for the listener. It's hard not to start smiling and bobbing my head when their songs [...]
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Lindstrøm leaks Oneohtrix Point Never remix of ‘Call Me Anytime’
