Jakobinarina - The First Crusade
Artist profile:
Jakobinarina
Release Date: 01/10/07
Label: Regal
Rating: ****
Iceland’s teenage population may not be known for their frantic garage-punk affiliations but perchance these are the boys to change all that. With youth on their side (all members aged between 17 and 20) and more than enough confidence to go around (“I think the album should be used as a reference work for how great albums can be,” says guitarist Hallberg Hallbergson), this record could be the start of something huge.
Engineered by Arctic Monkeys affiliate Mike Crossey, this is a set of songs that displays far more invention and crude intellect than the Monkeys themselves while maintaining a similar level of vitality and relentless high energy.
It’s their cutting sense of humour that really marks them out from the indie pack, though, as on the excellent ‘Jesus’ with it’s defining line: ‘Fuck the crowd with their low IQs/keeps on dancing to the so-called blues’, this is a band that clearly has very little time for the music scene as is - ‘Jump around to the sounds of mediocrity’ calls the chorus. It’s fairly thrilling.
Plowing a rich seam of Mclusky-edged, jittering punk with little nods toward electronica and the spazz-core time changes of Blood Brothers, the defining comparison must be the fertile ramblings of Fall frontman Mark E Smith, albeit married to far more memorable tunes and emotive playing.
‘If I keep this up for the next ten years I’ll look like Paul Giamatti’ cries vocalist Gunnar Bergman on the hilariously bitter ‘Sleeping In Seattle’. It’s as obscure and fitting as pop culture references get and sums up their quirky charm in a single line.
Spiteful, potentially dangerous and terribly addictive, Jakobinarina are a band of the future that we are supremely lucky to have in the present.
James O’Connell
Jakobinarina Official Site
Jakobinarina Myspace
Buy Jakobinarina CDs | Buy Jakobinarina mp3s | Buy Jakobinarina Tickets | Buy Jakobinarina Merch
Release Date: 01/10/07
Label: Regal
Rating: ****
Iceland’s teenage population may not be known for their frantic garage-punk affiliations but perchance these are the boys to change all that. With youth on their side (all members aged between 17 and 20) and more than enough confidence to go around (“I think the album should be used as a reference work for how great albums can be,” says guitarist Hallberg Hallbergson), this record could be the start of something huge.
Engineered by Arctic Monkeys affiliate Mike Crossey, this is a set of songs that displays far more invention and crude intellect than the Monkeys themselves while maintaining a similar level of vitality and relentless high energy.
It’s their cutting sense of humour that really marks them out from the indie pack, though, as on the excellent ‘Jesus’ with it’s defining line: ‘Fuck the crowd with their low IQs/keeps on dancing to the so-called blues’, this is a band that clearly has very little time for the music scene as is - ‘Jump around to the sounds of mediocrity’ calls the chorus. It’s fairly thrilling.
Plowing a rich seam of Mclusky-edged, jittering punk with little nods toward electronica and the spazz-core time changes of Blood Brothers, the defining comparison must be the fertile ramblings of Fall frontman Mark E Smith, albeit married to far more memorable tunes and emotive playing.
‘If I keep this up for the next ten years I’ll look like Paul Giamatti’ cries vocalist Gunnar Bergman on the hilariously bitter ‘Sleeping In Seattle’. It’s as obscure and fitting as pop culture references get and sums up their quirky charm in a single line.
Spiteful, potentially dangerous and terribly addictive, Jakobinarina are a band of the future that we are supremely lucky to have in the present.
James O’Connell
Jakobinarina Official Site
Jakobinarina Myspace
Buy Jakobinarina CDs | Buy Jakobinarina mp3s | Buy Jakobinarina Tickets | Buy Jakobinarina Merch
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