It's hard to believe that I first wrote about Reykjavík, Iceland's Haugar a whopping five years ago, and now they've finally issued a full-length album, the title of which I believe translates to "Coffee Soda" in English. The band features my buddy Birkir on drums (who I'm primarily familiar with from I Adapt and Celestine), and a couple of other members from Stafrænn Hákon, who I've also heard, but everyone's résumé is just stacked with other bands.
Whatever that collective history might represent, Haugar presents some absolutely fantastic indie rock in the truest sense—striking the perfect balance between aptly raw, "jangular" textures and slightly more lush/shimmery fare that still retains that respectable sense of D.I.Y. ruggedness. "Respectable" meaning "quality," in the sense that I don't want to imply that this is coming from that lo-fi basement/bedroom angle, as that's not the case at all. Of course the songwriting feels driven by '90s influences, but I've heard a lot of younger new bands who interpret sounds from that era in a similar matter, so this outing is not entirely some kind of throwback.
With relaxed singing vocals all-around (entirely in Icelandic), the vibe is generally laidback (check "Að Vera Einn," a personal favorite), but also breaks into a rockin' bounce at times (see "Það Gerist Allt Í Leiðinni," especially). Expect plenty of fuzzy distortion and great use of panning, so that you can really hear all of the little details in how the left/right guitars intertwine with one another. I definitely love the production. The rhythm section sounds completely natural; there's good clarity, contrast, and density in the mix; etc. Again, it has a certain lo-fi character, but that totally fits and the end result still comes across as high-quality. Just a wonderful atmosphere overall.
Soðkaffi was originally available through its own custom web player, encouraging listeners to experience the album front-to-back as a whole, but it looks like it's also now in its entirety on Bandcamp, where you can also grab quite limited CDs or cassettes (I pre-ordered a CD, but given the current state of the world, who knows if they'll even be able to ship to the U.S.). The handful of singles from 2020 are on streaming, but the complete album is not (if intentional, a decision I always respect), so...
In any case, should Haugar wind up being a "one and done" type of project, Soðkaffi feels like a striking success to me. Hopefully it'll slowly reach a wider number of appreciative ears. Great work.
Get It
- Bandcamp (CD, cassette, mp3)
- Vogor Records (stream)
