You will never witness a musician who performs live with more joy than Hermigervill. Full stop. I’ve seen him play probably half a dozen times, both in a duo with the dream pop vocalist Berndsen as well as solo in a wide range of venues, from large halls to record stores. And the look of happiness on my man’s face as he rocks out on his synths is infectious. If you don’t find yourself smiling at a Hermigervill show, you’re a wold-class sourpuss.
At the end of 2023 Hermigervill put out Switched-On Iceland, which he described on Instagram as “my 70s synth library music masterpiece.” And sticking with that 70s theme the whole thing is analog – analog synths, live drumming, and all of it recorded on honest-to-god tape. Is there a bit of festishism happening here? Sure. Am I complaining? Absolutely not. Even the packaging has that 70s feel, not only in the jacket and label layouts, but also the addition of an old school price sticker and some handwriting on the back, just like you so often find on older used records. The only thing it’s missing is some weed seed or shake falling out when you remove the record.
Right from the opening notes of “Ég Elska Alla” Hermigervill brings the spaciest, funkiest, 70s-iest of vibes, the psych and funk chasing one another faster and faster until they become a homogenous swirl of organ notes and basslines spinning like a pinwheel. And then my head explodes as he bloops and bleeps into the opening notes of Gusgus’ all-time-classic-that-I-love-so-much-I-can-hardly-stand-it “Ladyshave”. Yes, of course I’ve heard all the various remixes of this smooth dancefloor jam, but this isn’t a remix – it’s a complete and total re-imagining, it’s what “Ladyshave” would have sounded like had it been recorded for the soundtrack of Black Caesar, something that might have been blasting out of a car 8-track during the early evening after a too-hot city day, signaling that the night is coming and so is the party and we’re gonna be out until dawn. It’s damn near perfect in every single way. The rest of side A is a mix of sci-fi, oompah, and folk, simple and upbeat progressions on top of multiple sonic layers, the bass and drums at the low end, the synth chords rising and falling in the tasty center. The B side brings us more of those soundtrack vibes. I particularly enjoy the drumming on “Ég Er Frjáls”, which occasionally allows for some fills and flourishes, and the lo-fi futurism of “Fjöllin Hafa Vakað”. But let’s be real, shall we? The fact is, you can’t go wrong with a single track on Switched-On Iceland.
This early vinyl release is actually a very limited lathe cut – how limited I’m not entirely sure, but most of the lathe cuts from Iceland are in editions of 30 or less, and I suspect the same is true with Switched-On Iceland. I mentioned in a recent post my hit-and-miss history with lathe cut quality, but this one is another winner – sonically clean enough to crank up the volume a bit and not worry about it. I suspect we’ll see some other physical releases of Switched-On Iceland, so stay tuned. For now, though, you’ll need to check it out on the various streaming platforms, and you should do so, immediately.