Iceland Airwaves Eruption: Dikta

It's been said a million times, but it really is almost inconceivable how Iceland -- a country which is home to a mere 310,000 people -- fosters such a prosperous, creative, unique, and awesome music scene! From the bizarre vocal style of Bjork to the gorgeous soundscapes of Sigur Ros to cold, distance folk leanings of Seabear to Minus and many, many more, Iceland truly does have an eclectic array of musicians and bands. 1:10 is the country's good bands to people ratio. I kid you not.

Okay, so I kid a little, but I'm sure that fake stat isn't far from what it is in reality.

The Iceland Airwaves Festival is a sort of annual showcasing of what Iceland's music scene has to offer. The event's debuted in 1999 and has been growing and going strong ever since! This year's festival will blow your socks off. While BIBABIDI cannot attend (October 17 - 21), we will be there in spirit. The roster includes a bunch of Icelandic bands, some stellar international ones, and an array of DJs as well.

One group off the Iceland Airwaves Eruption compilation really stood out to me: Dikta (MySpace). The mellow and moody quartet sounds just like what you'd expect to come out of Iceland -- cold, distant, clean and crisp, an organic mixing of acoustic, steely orchestrations, and pitch-perfect glitzy production -- but with something else in there, too. Maybe it's the easy Coldplay comparison or the innate accessibility of the music that sounds all at once a little foreboding and daunting, but ends up being rather poppy. I can definitely see these four playing on the radio.

But enough with my rant. Check out "Breaking the Waves," see what you think, and hey, maybe you've found an excuse to go to Iceland finally!

Dikta - Breaking the Waves

Dikta - Breaking the Waves (Acoustic)