Reviews

Artist: Hjaltalin
Album: Terminal
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.hjaltalinmusic.com

Described as Iceland's newest senstation, Hjaltalin are a far cry from Bjork and The Sugar Cubes. Their album 'Terminal' is an audacious musical ride. Clearly made up of top musicians, and I'll risk assuming that they're all classically trained; together Hjaltalin have formed an interesting, quite remarkable and busy sound. There are some marvellous male and female vocal exchanges between Egilsson and Thorlassius (think Shirley Basset, Tom Jones, Barbara Striesand), however I can't help feeling that the bulk of the album should be part of a West End musical, and I'll express my opinion towards the difficulty in putting vocals over classical styled orchestral music, and not ending up with Andrew Lloyd Webber. Is this a good thing? Obvious answer; It depends on the taste of the individual. However at best there is a feel of the beautiful heart wrenching love tragic melodies of West Side Story.

Never the less, there is plenty of room for surprises with Terminal as Hjaltalin have the ability to shift between styles seemingly effortlessly, and yet cleverly keeping undertones of their classical influence. The second half of Terminal glides from West End Musical material to a more mainstream jazz soul pop sound, as is evident in '7 Years' - a down right seventies disco kitten of a track, and outrageously different from the likes of 'Suitcase Man' - a beast of Orchestral swinging madness.

An acquired taste, but definitely an interesting and challenging piece of work, and at nearly fifty-three minutes long, the buyers of Terminal will certainly get their moneys worth.

Miss James

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