66 Degrees of Sound

Send a text This week we are back with an artist spotlight on singer-songwriter GDRN and her quick but huge rise to success in Icelandic music. This episode is hosted solely by Jóhannes and will be our only release this week, as Rex is out sick.  (If you're wondering where last week's Hot Happenings and Saturday Morning Mix episodes went, that's also what happened.) Guðrún Ýr Eyfjör...

Send a text It's an exciting week for us as GV HQ Studios as we get a much-needed gear upgrade courtesy of the good folks at Tónastöðin . Going with us on the maiden voyage on our new mixer is rock band sameheads' guitarist Baldur Skúlason, who joined us in the studio for a short but sweet chat about their latest single "Barinn við Barinn" (released May 24). We get into the ver...

Send a text After a hectic short week of shifting into biweekly printing mode, your hosts Rex and Jói are once again bringing a sweet sweet Saturday morning mix full of fresh new tunes. In this synchronicity-heavy episode, we find many accidental connections between the artist and tracks, making these disparate tracks reach common ground. We also veer off into rock'n'roll anecdotes, Scan...

Send a text Things truly get heated up on this week's edition of Hot Happenings, as we have an absolutely fire discussion with Icelandic music industry expert Anna Jóna Dungal . A wearer of many hats in the industry with a rich and varied background, she is notably the OK AGENCY consulting firm, manager of erstwhile Eurovision contenders Celebs , and previously on the Sena Live team. She rece...

Send a text There's never a dull moment at GV HQ studios and this week is no exception! Coming in frazzled from a long weekend, we arrived to find our mixer had vanished and we had to improvise. Luckily we are punk-ethos musicians so we just got creative. This episode is very "play it as it lays" but in the best way possible, we think. We were also very lucky to have a great guest i...

Send a text Just another Saturday getting ready to carpe diem with some coffee and some hot new Icelandic tunes! This week we have a doubles-special, with two releases off marvaða records, two releases off Heavy Knife records, and two cover songs! (But only 5 tracks—one of those fits two categories.) This one is an absolute banger of a list so get ready to kick off your weekend with some kitchen d...

Send a text We take a serious turn on this week's Hot Happenings to highlight the upcoming lectures of Dr. Mads Gilbert, prominent Norwegian health care worker and activist for Palestine. He's coming at the end of the month to deliver his talk "Gaza 2024: A catastrophic man-made disaster. What can we do?", facilitated by the Félagið Ísland-Palestína (Iceland-Palestine Associati...

Send a text As we sprint through the end of our transition to biweekly summer issues, we kick off another weekly rotation of 66DoS. This week's artist spotlight is on the genre-bending and self-described “boy band” Xiupill! With members hailing from Iceland, Spain and the US, the three-piece create a blend of production, performance and artistry that looks firmly to the future of music produc...

Send a text Ahh, it's another fine Saturday morning in Reykjavík and what better way to start the weekend than with some piping hot new tunes! Hosts Rex and Jói once again bring you five fresh picks that have been blowing up our Grapevine playlist. This week we have vibes from all over the shop — some eerie ambient from Sin Fang, the new intercontinental collab Vil, the roaring comeback of Tó...

Send a text It's an extra hot Hot Happenings episode this week as we dive in with one of the Grapevine's faves—MSEA joins us in our studio to talk about her release show for her latest album Our Daily Apocalypse Walk (released in September 2023). The concert is Thursday May 9, 20:00 at Tjarnarbíó and tickets cost 3.900 ISK. And since that is the day this episode drops, you better hurry a...

Send a text A whole new week, a whole new set of tech issues and delays! OOF! Coming at you one day late, this week's Artist Spotlight shines on TORFI, the quadruple threat newcomer poised to take over Reykjavík's dancefloors. The singer-songwriter-producer-dancer joined us once again in studio (his first visit was last year) to tell us all about his debut album EITT (released April 25),...

Send a text Oh no we messed up! "We" being Rex's internet in their new place, as moving and technology didn't go hand in hand. Wish we could blame mercury-in-gatorade for it but it wasn't even there. So last week's  Saturday Morning Mix comes to you on a Monday afternoon instead, because better late than never. It's also going to have to tide you over until next...

Send a text In this week's Hot Happenings, your lovely co-hosts Jói and Rex bring you a finely curated weekend of comedy and culture in Reykjavík. If you’re ready to laugh, internationally acclaimed musical-comedians Reggie Watts and Bill Bailey are performing in Iceland this weekend — separately! Along with those, we tip you off to the recently opened Freyja Pub where local grassroots comedy...

Send a text Another week, another brand new cycle of 66 Degrees of Sound, our podcast highlighting new music and events in Iceland. This week kicks off this week with an artist spotlight on Dustin O’Halloran, the renown American pianist, producer, and composer who now lives in Iceland. Dustin released his latest solo album 1 0 0 1 on March 22 along with the video single “Spiritus Naturae Aeternus”...

Send a text What a comeback week we’ve had for our little show that could! Rounding out our new weekly cycle, today we bring you the first Saturday Morning Mix, a sweet playlist along with some analysis and peanut gallery banter from your hosts. Just back to basics new music roundup goodness, really. On this episode, we find our sea-legs and bring you new music from Kiriyama Family, Paddan, K.Óla,...

Send a text We continue our comeback week with Hot Happenings #1, where we get into the Nanna, RAKEL & Salomé Katrín show this Friday, and go over some cool Record Store Day events in our fine local shops, including 12 Tónar, Alda Music Shop, and Plötubúðin in Hafnarfjörður. Also: the smell of studios and pitching new scents to Fischersund , and how North Americans are never actually asking yo...

Send a text After a much longer break than anticipated, we are very pleased to announce the comeback of our new music and events podcast 66 Degrees of Sound! 66 Degrees of Sound is a show about the newest music being released in Iceland and the hottest events happening in Reykjavík. Kicking off a whole new chapter of the show, hosts Jóhannes Bjarkason and Rex Beckett are back behind the microphone...

Send a text We have reached the final episode of our podcast’s first year and what a year it has been! What started as a weekly dual radio-podcast show airing on Útvarp 101, to slowing down our pace and becoming a monthly online-only podcast, we’ve covered a lot of ground while covering a lot of great music and cool events. And of course, this last episode of 2023 is no exception. 66 Degrees of So...

Send a text 66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine is your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic music releases and upcoming events. On this month’s episode we recap our Iceland Airwaves experiences, highlight some tracks that fell into the void, explore an internet radio journey, a...

Send a text In recent weeks, none other than Björk has voiced her opinion on open-net fish farming in Iceland. Hint: She's opposed. 66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine is your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic music releases and upcoming events. The show will now exist i...

Send a text We're back from hiatus! After a few weeks of retooling and behind-the-scenes makeover montages, your pals Rex and Jói are back with a lemon-fresh new episode of 66 Degrees of Sound. 66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine is your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic...

Send a text ANNOUNCEMENT! We are taking a short break for a couple of weeks to revise and refresh. We'll be back very soon! In the meantime, listen to some old episodes and our Spotify playlist . See you in a couple of weeks and as always, be excellent to each other! Welcome to  66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka...

Send a text Welcome to  66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic music releases. Your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, join us every Friday for the weekly roundup. This week, Jói is joined by Ólöf Rún Benediktsdóttir — member of dark-wave group/witch coven Svartþoka, community o...

Send a text Welcome to  66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic music releases. Your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, join us every Friday for the weekly roundup. This week, Rex and Jói start the episode in full non-sequitur mode and straight into third-party celebrity sighting...

Send a text Welcome to  66 Degrees of Sound by The Reykjavík Grapevine, where Grapevine journalists Rex Beckett and Jóhannes Bjarkason (aka Jói) discuss the latest Icelandic music releases. Your one-stop shop for brand new Icelandic music, join us every Friday for the weekly roundup. This week, Rex and Jói are sorry for the episode that vanished last week, talk volcanic gasses polluting the Reykja...