A Collection of Icelandic Album Reviews by Wim Van Hooste

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Hellvar "Stop that noise"

Once upon a time there were 2 Icelandic philosophy students in Berlin: Heiða Eiríksdóttir (former singer of the band Unun) and Geir Elvar Sævarsson (member of the anarchistic group DYS). With the guitars around their neck Heiða & Elvar decided to start performing with their beloved laptop annex drumcomputer under the name Hellvar, Heiða + Elvar. Together with bassist Flosi Þorgeirsson, of the famous group HAM, they worked on their debut album back in Iceland. This album "Bat out of Hellvar" was the first release on the new label Kimi Records in 2007. In the following years the trio transformed into a quartet and a quintet eventually. On their second album "Stop that noise" (Kimi Records, 2011), the band found a solid sound, resulting in 9 poppy postpunk rock songs. The sound refers to Garbage and Republica, with a dash Sugarcubes, but with more balls on Björk's body. In other words estrogen singing with guitars & drums driven by testosterone firework. There's even a song in French on their repertoire: "Morceau the gai (e)té". Chanteuse Heiða has a tradition to uphold as Icelandic girl speaking & singing in French. My favorite song is the philosophical "Ding an sich." But the other 8 tracks will probably also appeal to you. The album was also released in an acoustic version, with the songs of the 2 releases in a summer jacket: "Noise that stopped".

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