There are some exceedingly hard-to-find and commensurately expensive Icelandic albums.1 I’m by no means an authority, but if you give me 60 seconds I can name a handful that have at some point breeched the thousand dollar threshold – things like original pressings of the 1973 prog-rocker Icecoss, Björk’s 1977 self-titled debut (which ironically came out 16 years prior to her post-Sugarcubes, post-KUKL solo album entitled Debut), and Sororicide’s 1991 metal masterpiece The Entity come to mind immediately, and there are certainly others. Like many valuable records, however, these aren’t necessarily hard to find for sale – it’s more a question of whether or not you’re willing to pay the price (and trust the seller enough to not pull a fast one on you, as all three of these albums have seen represses of, shall we say, dubious provenance, which are often sold as if they were originals).
There are also some records that just don’t come up for sale. Þeyr’s Þagað Í Hel was on my want list for years before a copy popped on Discogs in 2019 and I snagged it. That listing was followed by two more sales that same year and then… *poof*… no copies currently listed for sale and none sold on that platform in close to five years. One of the legendary “you never see a copy for sale at any price” records is a little four-song 7″ that came out in 1981 called Taugadeildin, the only thing every put out by the new wave/punk band of the same name. Only three copies have sold on Discogs in the last 11 years, and when one popped up in 2023 I was sorely tempted to buy it… but I wasn’t willing to pay the $500 asking price. But someone else was. I’ve only seen it in the wild once, when I passed on a beat-up copy for something like $300, which in hindsight seems like a bargain. But such is the life of the record collector.
Fortunately for me, however, Taugadeildin got back together and put out a crowd-funding offer on Karolina Fund, which is sort of an Icelandic version of Kickstarter. Enough of us committed and that allowed the band to release Þegar Dauðir Rísa Upp in April, a fun 14-song trip down new wave memory lane that includes what I believe are newly recorded versions of the four tracks from the band’s 7″ (has it actually been 43 years since that came out???).
The album opens with the psychedelic “A Song”, a rockabilly rhythm overlaid with an old-school organ that would have sounded right at home coming out of a car 8-track in Venice Beach circa 1968, sunshine-y chords with a little extra kick that make for an infectious jam and one that sets the mood for the rest of the record. Other high points from the A side include the poppy “Guðir Hins Nýja Tíma” and the driving guitars and punk cadence of “Helgarnar Á Borginni”, the edgiest track on the side. The B side also opens with an upbeat song, the organ driving the action on “Í Árabát” and giving it a bright sound, one offset slightly by the slightly lo-fi vocals giving it a bit of a garage rock vibe. “Space Queen” takes the lo-fi vocals a step further, pairing them with surf-styled guitars and that ever-present organ to live up to the “space” part of the title, a psychonautical aural exploration. All the elements come together on “Taugadeild”, the sonic distillation of Þegar Dauðir Rísa Upp as a whole and poured into a single, fantastic 97 seconds. Perfection.
It’s been exciting to see some Icelandic artists from the 1980s putting out some new music. In addition to Taugadeildin, last year we had a album by Jonee Jonee (Annar Dagur) and a box set from Purrkur Pillnikk (Orð Fyrir Dauða). Who will be next? I’m not sure, but I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears peeled. As for Þegar Dauðir Rísa Upp, I assume the vinyl pressing was fairly small, so if you want it you probably should try to pick it up sooner rather than later. Your best bet might be Reykjavik’s own Lucky Records, so go get one while you can.
- As we all know, rarity and value don’t necessary go hand-in-hand. You need demand as well. There are a number of “micro labels” I follow that produce releases in quantities in the 10 to 50 copy range, and while often these sell out quickly when announced and rarely show up on the secondary market, when they do often they aren’t particularly expensive. ↩︎