In 1998 most people knew nothing, or next to nothing, about Icelandic music. Yes, the Sugarcubes happened and Björk was half a decade into her solo career, and Sigur Rós was putting out their second album. If you were a big prog-head (and I mean in deep) they you probably knew of Icecross. And certainly the people who are into whatever it is that Mezzoforte do knew them. But that was about it. Hell, I’m an Icelandic music mega-nerd and even I don’t listen to a ton of 90s stuff from there.
With that in mind, when this 1998 2xCD comp slid out of a box of stuff I recently ordered from my friends at Lucky Records I didn’t have particularly high hopes for it. But as I looked at the list of artists I thought, “damn, OK, this is at least going to be interesting.” And it turned out to be much better than that – it’s one of the better non-genre-specific comps I’ve heard in a long time. Even the Mezzoforte track “Stratus”) slaps.
There are plenty of artists here I was at least generally familiar with – Vinyll, Páll Óskar (in the booklet as Paul Oscar, probably to make it seem more familiar for non-Icelandic listeners), Unun, Quarashi, Bang Gang, Sigur Rós… it’s a robust lineup. And damn, the songs are GOOD. Almost every one. Aria’s “Arella” blends classic vocal melody with hip hop, followed by the straight ahead rock of Vinyll’s “Haze” flowing right into the pop of Páll Óskar and his incredible voice, then the swing-revival-meets-rockabilly of Silt, sliding over to Unun’s pop-punk… it’s just one banger after another, something fun and interesting around every corner.
The collection labels the two discs “Fire” and “Ice”. The “Fire” portion leans very heavily toward popular music – rock, pop, hip hop (even Mezzoforte injects a heavy dose of funk into their track). The “Ice” side is, as you’d expect, more chill featuring artists like KK and Emiliana Torrini, leaning more toward singer-songwriter stuff.
Obviously this has been out of print for ages. However, as of the time I’m writing this there are a few copies for sale on eBay, and even with shipping from Europe you can snag it for under $30. And with 34 songs and clocking in at close to 2.5 hours, you’re definitely getting your money worth from Fire And Ice.