
The biggest self-centered dirtbags always gain the most sympathy from
an aduience when the story is narrative from their point of view. Such
is the case of Hlynur, a young man around 30, living with mom in a tiny
apartment, looking like an adult version of Max Fischer from
'Rushmore,' who rarely ventures outside the postal code of 101
Reykjavik and has absolutely no ambition to get a job and make
something of himself. "We're dead after we die, we're dead before we're
born, life is just a break from death," he claims, as the film centers
around this young man's life who feels everybody dies every weekend
after the parties are over. We often find Hylnur alone, falling asleep
in the snow, almost longing for a death which never comes. Hylnur has a
number of issues including pent-up aggression towards his family
coupled with sexual/attachment issues that keeps him from sleeping next
to a girl he's just fucked. All this changes when he seems to fall in
love with his mom's new lover, a gorgeous Flamenco dance instructor
from Spain. Basically while mom's dealing with the issues of coming
out, Hlynur's dealing with issues of having sex with her new "lesbian"
girlfriend. Toss in a psycho fling who's completely obsessed with
Hlynar to the point of lying about a pregnancy and a bunch of drunken
party scenes and you've got a marvelously entertaining comedy with a
ton of really great, punchy lines from first time filmmaker Baltasar
Kormákur Baltasarsson. My favorite scene has got to be the kids
shooting fireworks at the Domino's delivery guy—easily one of the
funniest scenes I've seen in a long while! Two years after its release,
it's finally making some rounds in North America, best of luck trying
to see it.
Tovey could very well possibly be one of the most important pioneers in post-punk electronic synth music. While he may have not sold as many units as label mates Depeche Mode or contemporaries like Human League or OMD who had to change their sound to top charts, he was demonstrating that synth music didn't always have to be happy pop anthems and love songs. Unlike Gary Numan or Kraftwerk, he didn't paranoiacally or idealistically fanticize a future world ruled by robots and computers, which has completely worked to his advantage, giving his songs an amazing timeless feel. While his tunes were undoubtedly catchy, futuristic pop anthems with sinister lyrics, his live performances were raw and vicious, often ending with large amounts of blood loss and paramedic assistance.
In a time where Fischerspooner can sign a ?2M recording deal, Tovey was poised for a strong comeback—he had been recording new material and played a number of shows in the UK and Europe. Unfortunately, the exponentially growing scene of these modern groups may never truly understand how much they really owe to Tovey. There's a nice picture accompanying a short obituary at mute.com as well as some recent live pictures at the French web site, fadgadget.free.fr. He will be missed. -In the four years since their last album, 'Shrink,' the members of this German group have kept active with numerous other projects, including two astonishing albums from Lali Puna; two incredible full-lengthers and a remix disc from Tied and Tickled Trio; plus notable LP, EP and remix releases from Console; and various appearances on others albums. 'Shrink' was probably such a phenomenal pop/post-rock electronic jazzy breakthrough that I may have been expecting something similar. 'Neon Golden' has far exceeded my expectations, however.