Singapore Sling 'The Curse of Singapore Sling' album

Hailing from Rejkyavik, Iceland, the mysterious, elusive Singapore Sling at once celebrate and cross-pollinate the diverse, ambitious artistic vision of the best of the early Creation Records roster, running the gamut from the Jesus and Mary Chain to Primal Scream to My Bloody Valentine to Swervedriver. Their music is at once renegade and retrospective, a bristling, anarchic sonic attack, mounted atop classic, hook-laden psychedelic pop.

Their debut album, "The Curse Of Singapore Sling" (scheduled for a June release stateside by New York's Stinky Records label) is a dark and dangerous aural cocktail mixed from three alternately squalling/furiously riffing guitars, thrusting bass, hypnotically wailing keyboards, primal drums and strategic percussion. Their production strategies are simple but effective: singer-songwriter-guitarist Henrik Bj?rnsson lays down basic tracks on his 8-track and the rest of this band mates show up, crank up the volume to "11" and let 'er rip! Singapore Sling's hypnotic wall of sound simultaneously evokes the era of the Beats, classic 50's AM rock radio and the infinite promise and possibilities of the open road, times when rock 'n' roll was redemptive and pure - all brute, raw power that didn't make sense and wasn't expected to. Singapore Sling's music also reverberates with the proto-punk manifestos of Suicide, the Stooges and the Velvet Underground (all among the band's chief musical heroes). Not surprisingly, Singapore Sling was recently cited by Spin as one of Iceland's brightest young rock hopes.

The band formed in Spring of 2000 and garnered critical plaudits and attention for their appearances at the 2001 and 2002 Iceland Airwaves Festivals. In addition to Bj?rnsson, Sling members include Helgi Petursson on guitar and keyboards, Einar Kristjansson on guitar, Toggi Gu?mundsson on bass, Bjarni Johannsson on drums and Siggi Shaker on marracas and tambourine.

In late 2002, Singapore Sling released the Icelandic version of their debut album, "The Curse of Singapore Sling", on Iceland's Hitt Records, to both critical acclaim and chart success in Iceland. Now, the band is set to make its mark in North America, with "The Curse of Singapore Sling" set for release in June 2003 on New York-based indie label Stinky Records (home to Swedish psych-rockers Citizen Bird). An odyssey into the underbelly of rock music, the album launches with the dark and unabashedly sexy "Overdriver", shifting into the Phil Spector-esque "Summer Garden", and then into the menacing, grooving guitar riff of "Nuthin' Ain't Bad". Other highlight tracks include "Listen", which is featured in a videoclip that includes the band performing with the accompaniment of a bevy of bikini-clad dancing girls tapped from the Icelandic female volleyball league.

In anticipation of the impending release of "The Curse of Singapore Sling" in North America, Sling recently played their first ever US shows, in March, including a show at the South By Southwest Music Festival and several packed New York shows (including a sold out show opening for The Brian Jonestown Massacre). This June, Singapore Sling will be hitting the road for their first ever national US tour, in support the release of "The Curse of Singapore Sling".

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Singapore Sling - The Curse of Singapore Sling