The first time amiina released a record, the ‘animamina’ EP in December 2004, they were pretty much a group in concept alone, having previously played together only as a string quartet round their native Iceland and more latterly as Sigur Ros’s string section on their world tours.  amiina, the performing group, didn’t really come about until July 2005, with the four girls expanding their role with Sigur Ros to one of live opening act. 

While there had been a clutch of small hometown in-stores and a slot at Adem’s celebrated Homefires event in London, the amiina that has made this record was essentially born in flames in the white heat of public scrutiny playing to 3,000 people a night with little or no previous form, over the ensuing 13 months.

Two of the songs here formed part of the set Solrun, Maria, Edda and Hildur honed together on the road ‘til this summer, gradually building from the bottom up the idea of what kind of a band amiina might turn out to be.  ‘Seoul’ and ‘Ammaelis’ showcase two very different aspects of their productivity, although each provided live highlights.  The third song, ‘Ugla’, came about in brief periods at home between Sigur Ros dates, when the foursome, plying their position as a genuine garage band in the arse end of Reykjavik 101, decided to start singing on their previously instrumental compositions. 

Together the three songs make for a compelling and somewhat magical package, which comes in a gorgeous wallet adorned with a suitably odd illustration of the band masticating “musical” spaghetti (or something?).

Beginning with a slow see-sawing line topped off with bright glockenspiel tones, ‘Seoul’ progresses via a micro-KORG that makes a machine-saw sound (!) solo that, to paraphrase Patti Smith, sounds like “someone put butter on the fine points of the stars so that they began to slip”.  Pleasantly drunk feeling and more than a little dotty, it’s a bit like imaging Romeo & Juliet enacted by The Clangers.  Soon the saw gives way to a set of chiming children’s bells and the mood shifts to Christmas in a snow-dome.  Tiny harp sounds punctuate proceedings and a feeling of giddy bonhomie pervades all.

The garage/studio song, ‘Ugla’, is built around a delicate guitar and an almost theremin-sounding saw, somewhere towards the upper register of human hearing.  Strange vocal samples, like a grumpy hamster being gently lent upon, bring a peculiar charm, and then, lo, amiina start singing! Sweet and narcotic, their voices join in siren effect as they sing about making mistakes and owls (the words sound similar in Icelandic).

‘Ammaelis’ is the odd-one-out, the song that everybody loved live, but which sounded like it belonged to an entirely different set from amiina’s whimsical world.  A kind of kindergarten-Kraftwerk-by-way-of-Joe Meek, ‘Ammaelis’ is made with a Casio VL1 and a saw being hammered with a pom-pom mallet. It’s pop musik from a tinfoil universe and, as you might imagine, completely charming and lovely.

How much do we love amiina round here?!

Buy 'Seoul'

Buy 'Animamina'