Composer Reacts to Kælan Mikla - Næturblóm (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

[@breidablikmusic2501]

Cool to see Kælan Mikla on the channel. Having followed their output since the early years I must say the band has had a great development. The last two albums are simply outstanding!

[@PoetryAndTofu]

Highly agree; massive praise to whoever produced this. I could take a night drive to this song and the soundscape alone would put me in another world. No credit taken away from the band though, this is a gorgeous track that I'd love to hear live as well since you mentioned that. In the meantime, gotta check out the rest of their work.

[@BryceKatz]

Lyrically, the band has said in interviews that Næturblóm is a story about their friendship. They've been friends since high school - since before they won the open mic competition that led to them pursuing a career as Kælan Mikla. Musically, you're observations are on point. The ladies' decision to perform only in Icelandic was intentional & they know it's a limiting factor. With that in mind, they put a lot of effort into matching the music to the overall feeling presented in the lyrics. Another excellent example of this is "Sírenur" from their 4th album Undir Köldum Norðurljósum (which translates as "Under the Cold Northern Lights").

[@FrankNestel]

Maggy, the bass player, she is a genius for me. Not too many notes but all in time. From their latest album Örlögin seems closest to this for me. Of course they have many other great songs.

[@BryceKatz]

Maggy is an absolute genius on the bass.

[@articircle]

Lovely darkwave sound. Synth + drum & bass here is a great combo. I don't think it's unusual to see this kind of music with a full band; you often see duos, trios, and more full bands with darkwave groups. The genre started in the 80s, so not as easy to do everything on your own back then. Plus I feel like being able to meld creative ideas from more than one person could be a useful tool.

[@CriticalReactions]

That's interesting. I think I've just been exposed to so many 1 person electronic projects that it becomes my default expectation. Glad to hear this subgenre (at least) typically attracts larger groups.

[@theshadow6528]

@@CriticalReactions Even Boy Harsher who dont have anything except synth/drum machine and vocals, has 2 members, the singer and lyricist, and then the synth/drum machine player. So yea, it's quite common in this and related genres for duties to be more spread out. In kaelan mikla, the synth player used to play the drum kit early on in their career, but switched to synth, drum machine and occasionally flute (shes also the band's lyricist).

[@MichaelSeman-o1q]

@@theshadow6528 SInger Laufey wrote the lyrics to this song.

[@jonathanhenderson9422]

I think the standout element here is just the moodiness. Musically it was a bit too static, but I can always appreciate music that does such a good job at establishing an atmosphere and just immersing the listener in it.

[@djmillhaus]

btw that video is a live version, not the album mix. wonder what you think of the latter as well. but not mich difference actually, besides vocals and bass usually are more present in their performances.

[@MichaelSeman-o1q]

I prefer this version to what is on the CD

[@theshadow6528]

Id love to see an analysis of their song Sólstöður, or of Draumadis, as well :)

[@dikkertsburg5301]

Great ! Sounds a bit like Clan of Xymox from The Netherlands.

[@Robobotic]

In Europe live performances are much more valued and a lot of these nordic bands emphasize sounding like the studio versions of their songs. Some icelandic bands don't even have studio versions of some songs and are only playing them live.

[@theshadow6528]

europe is a very diverse continent. Im european, and maybe this is the case for iceland, but normally in europe bigger bands do have studio recordings

[@muskett00]

The opening beats made me hear - Iron Man, by Sabbath