aaamusic | On 13, Nov 2011

If robots somehow came to life, liked rock and roll music fused with electronic music and happened to play the organ; they might sound a bit like Apparat Organ Quartet. They are an Icelandic band who have just released their 8 years in the making album “Pólýfónía”. Apparat Organ Quartet released this album in 2010 in Iceland alone where it received rave reviews, they subsequently signed a deal with Crunchy Frog to release their album worldwide. “Pólýfónía” consists of 9 songs, all of which have a futuristic electronic feel to them. With the majority of the vocals done through vocoders and with lyrics in English, Icelandic, German and even Japanese you can be sure that this album is highly original and has a unique sound. “Cargo Frakt” you can really hear the rock and roll influence to their music- there is an edgy rock and roll intro and an upbeat drum pace- with heavy use of cymbals at the end giving this song a triumphant sound. “Söngur Geimunglingsins” is a slower paced song with interesting things going on in the melody line, this song is darker and moodier compared to some of the more upbeat, dancey songs on the album such as “Babbage” and “Pentatronik”. “123 forever”, the first track on the album immediately reminds me of the theme tune of a 1980’s video game- is this a bad thing? I don’t mean it to be, but there is definitely something in those layers of synth that give this record an overall 80’s retro vibe. Many will compare Apparat Organ Quartet to Daft Punk, for the obvious reasons, however this is almost an unfair comparison to a band who deserve some recognition for being one of the few bands who have genuinely carved out their own musical genre. Pólýfónía’ is out now on CD & itunes and on vinyl. If robots somehow came to life, liked rock and roll music fused with electronic music and happened to play the organ; they might sound a bit like Apparat Organ Quartet. They are an Icelandic band who have just released their 8 years in the making album “Pólýfónía”. Apparat Organ Quartet released this album in 2010 in Iceland alone where it received rave reviews, they subsequently signed a deal with Crunchy Frog to release their album worldwide. “Pólýfónía” consists of 9 songs, all of which have a futuristic electronic feel to them. With the majority of the vocals done through vocoders and with lyrics in English, Icelandic, German and even Japanese you can be sure that this album is highly original and has a unique sound. “Cargo Frakt” you can really hear the rock and roll influence to their music- there is an edgy rock and roll intro and an upbeat drum pace- with heavy use of cymbals at the end giving this song a triumphant sound. “Söngur Geimunglingsins” is a slower paced song with interesting things going on in the melody line, this song is darker and moodier compared to some of the more upbeat, dancey songs on the album such as “Babbage” and “Pentatronik”. “123 forever”, the first track on the album immediately reminds me of the theme tune of a 1980’s video game- is this a bad thing? I don’t mean it to be, but there is definitely something in those layers of synth that give this record an overall 80’s retro vibe. Many will compare Apparat Organ Quartet to Daft Punk, for the obvious reasons, however this is almost an unfair comparison to a band who deserve some recognition for being one of the few bands who have genuinely carved out their own musical genre. Pólýfónía’ is out now on CD & itunes and on vinyl. Orna Lyons