Jónsi wins the Nordic Music Prize

Iceland's Jónsi was announced as the winner of the inaugural Nordic Music Prize, awarded this past weekend at by:Larm in Oslo: https://nordicmusicprize.com/

Final 12 Nordic Music Prize nominees confirmed

The final 12 nominees for the first annual Nordic Music Prize have been announced:

Dungen - Skit i allt
Paleface - Helsinki – Shangri-La
Frisk Frugt - Dansktoppen møder Burkina Faso i det himmelblå rum hvor solen bor, suite
Susanne Sundfør - The Brothel
Robyn - Body talk
Jónsi - Go Do
Efterklang - Magic Chairs
Serena Maneesh - S-M 2: Abyss in B Minor
The Radio Dept. - Clinging to a scheme
Ólöf Arnalds - Innundir skinni
Kvelertak - Kvelertak
First Aid Kit - The big black & the blue

The winner will be announced during by:Larm in Oslo February 17-19. More here: https://nordicmusicprize.com/

Under the Radar top 50 albums

Scandinavians in Under the Radar's top 50 albums of 2010 list include Jónsi (#31), The Radio Dept. (#21) and Club 8 (#10): https://www.undertheradarmag.com/lists/top_50_albums_of_2010

Top tens for 2010: It's a Trap! Contributors

Pitchfork reviews Go Live

Pitchfork reviews Jónsi's live album: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14924-go-live/

Jónsi - New piano song

Jónsi is giving away a new track to coincide with the release of the live CD/DVD album "Go live": https://jonsi.com/go_live_download

Jónsi live album on the way

Jónsi will be releasing a live film/double-album on November 29 entitled "Go live" featuring footage from his March 2010 tour dress rehearsal performance in London. Said release will include live renditions of every track off his debut solo record "Go", as well as many other songs he's been playing live, including five never-released before. Preview info at his website: https://jonsi.com/

Jónsi backs out of in-stores

Pitchfork reports that Jónsi has cancelled all of his upcoming scheduled acoustic in-store performances saying "it was the most uncomfortable experience of his ten years in the public eye": https://pitchfork.com/news/40484-jonsi-cancels-in-store-tour/

Under the Radar goes to see Jónsi

Under the Radar goes to see Icelandic artist Jónsi live in LA: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/reviews/jonsi_at_the_fox_theater_pomona_ca/

Jónsi US tour this fall

Jónsi is touring the US this fall:

10/15 - 4th And B, San Diego, CA
10/17 - The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA
10/19 - Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
10/21 - House of Blues, Las Vegas, NV
10/22 - The Complex, Salt Lake City, UT
10/23 - The Marquee, Tempe, AZ
10/25 - Verizon Theatre, Grand Prairie, TX
10/26 - Austin Music Hall, Austin, TX
10/27 - Verizon Music Theater, Houston, TX
10/29 - Voodoo Festival, New Orleans, LA
10/30 - Moogfest, Asheville, NC
10/31 - The Tabernacle, Atlanta, GA
11/02 - The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
11/03 - Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
11/05 - The Fillmore, Detroit, MI
11/06 - Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH
11/08 - 9:30 Club, Washington DC
11/10 - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York City, NY

Under the Radar interviews Jónsi

Under the Radar interviews Icelandic artist Jónsi: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/jonsi/

This week's Last.fm chart

Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:

01. The Mary Onettes
02. The Radio Dept.
03. Familjen
04. Håkan Hellström
05. Jens Lekman
06. Hello Saferide
07. Bob Hund
08. Jonathan Johansson
09. Kent
10. Jónsi

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: https://www.last.fm/help/

Jónsi
Go
XL

When the album was announced in December, I wondered whether Jónsi's unfettering for his solo debut "Go" could signal a return to the emotive restraint of Sigur Rós' earlier work. At the time it seemed promising: "Go" began as an acoustic album, with kits by demure Múm stickman Samuli and early production by composer Nico Muhly. All of the pre-release teases seemed to indicate that a self-aware Jónsi was distancing himself from the annoyingly percussive bent of Sigur Rós' last half-decade.

And "Go" begins accordingly, with Jónsi's signature coo, studio-chopped into a startling twinkle. Elated, I imagined this reduction of Jónsi's emblematic voice indicative of the stripped, back-to-basics reinvention that this album deserved. I was wrong. It only took seven seconds to bury all hope under four-to-the-floor theatrics, the drum-heavy frenzy that trampled "Agaetis"' depth and subtlety, giving way to latter-day Sigur Rós' canned euphoria.

Even the album's bright spots are marred by Samuli's perplexing choice to lean heavily on Sigur Rós' drum aesthetics. The breathy breakdown on "Animal arithmetic" arrives, beautiful and intimate, but it's almost immediately carried off by a frenetic mess of percussive garbage. And though lead single "Boy lilikoi" has some catchy moments, its melodramatic sense of urgency is stultifying. The drumless tracks, then, are welcome, but they come off more as Sigur Rós retreads than any real change in direction -- fittingly, the album closer "Heniglas" is drone-for-drone the same elegiac statement as SR closers "Heysátan" and "Avalon". On the whole, "Go" is little more than a would-be Sigur Rós long player -- it takes few chances, and those it does take are drowned out by increasingly histrionic arrangements. Am I the only one who remembers the days when Jónsi effortlessly accomplished "epic" without being overly busy or stiflingly melodramatic?

Don't get me wrong. I'm still a Sigur Rós-lifer who will listen to this album on repeat, until the busywork of it starts to seem intricately wrought, my heart full-stop when Jónsi croons "o hjartað" on "Heniglas". But when longtime producer John Best says he hasn't "felt this excited about a project since the time [he] first heard 'Agaetis byrjun', right back in 1999", he's just getting everyone's hopes up. Yeah right, John.
- Nathan Keegan

Pitchfork reviews Jónsi

Pitchfork gives high marks to the new Jónsi album "Go": https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14098-go/

The Silent Ballet reviews Jónsi

The Silent Ballet reviews Jónsi's solo debut "Go": https://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/3237/Default.aspx