At 1051 Magazine we love to discover those hidden talents, the ones that don’t usually make the covers (or even the inside pages…) of electronic music publications.
Diving into the Icelandic scene, we have discovered a small label that had been in hibernation for four years, but in 2021 has come back to life with the release of three very interesting albums. All three are available here on Bandcamp for free download or name your price.
Raftónar is the name of this label, which was founded in 2013 and until 2017 released a few very interesting references and always focused on the Reykjavik scene.
One of these albums is signed by droQue, which is the pseudonym of a veteran of the Icelandic scene of which the label says it cannot announce his real identity at the moment. The other two come from Oh Mama, to whom we dedicate this space today. The first of these two albums was Tímarit, released in February, and in the last few days, Oh Mama has released Blokkir.
The great appeal of these two releases is simple. From a home studio, great results can be achieved, and the fundamental ingredients for this are originality and creativity, something Oh Mama have in abundance.
The album is packed with quirky house, nu disco sounds, breaks and even ambient delirium. On first listen, part of this second album brings to mind vaguely those early Röyksopp recordings, for example.
Engihjalli is one of the songs on Blokkir, which perfectly represents all of the above. A simple, clean and hypnotic percussion loop that serves as the basis for an excellent track.
We promise to keep digging into the very interesting Icelandic underground electronic scene, which seems to be full of hidden gems.
