| Tinymixtapes |
 Benedikt Hermannsson is at the helm of supersized Icelandic brass-rock band Benni Hemm Hemm. Unlike 2007’s weighty Kajak, Murta St. Calunga is often pretty or cute and occasionally sung in English. It’s befitting too: the lyrics “We’re whaling in the North Atlantic,” the refrain of the album’s second track, means a lot more, and to a wider audience, when not in Icelandic. At first, it resembles a Raffi song, strummed slowly and sweetly, as if patiently waiting for a bumbling accompaniment of children to catch up, until Benni Hemm Hemm’s bold, energetic orchestration — composed mostly of brass instruments, an acoustic guitar, and a piano — makes sure to briefly interrupt the piece. This approach is found all over the band’s previous work, where beautiful, soothing guitar passages become suddenly, and pleasantly, annihilated by the wind team.
This is so common, in fact, that the penultimate track — a cover of Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain” — has us waiting and waiting for that brass explosion to come, but shockingly, all we get is a little atmospheric harmonizing with the vocals and guitar. In fact, Murta on the whole is distinctly quieter and more uplifting than either Kajak or the band’s eponymous debut. A few new adventures have taken hold; first track “Beethoven Í Kaupmann” is a boisterous but controlled old country song, where the guitars prove they can pull the weight of the brass section, while “Velðiljóð” harks back to the band’s penchant for surprising, jerky time signatures and thick, all-systems-go harmonies....full text |
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| Popmatters |
I suppose Murta St. Calunga isn’t a real place. Then again, the made-up word conjures up potent images of islands, sun, maybe even an Air France or jj-soundtracked beach party. OK, it’s a Benni Hemm Hemm record, so we know we’re not in for downbeat electronica. If anything’s shifted on the 14-piece Icelandic group’s latest album, it’s towards a bigger, more varied sound. There are songs about Afghanistan, Brazil, and—as we’ll see—the North Atlantic ocean. The group still sounds more chamber-pop than big band (like I’m From Barcelona, the band has often defied listeners to work out exactly how they got all those performers to sound so petite), but Murta St. Calunga‘s still something of an expansion.
Benni Hemm Hemm’s music itself marries classical and twee pop in a bright, attractive way. Songs are built off single, repeating refrains—this applies both to musical ideas and to the words which, either in English or Icelandic, favour short, simple ideas. “We’re whaling in the North Atlantic” is a good example. Busting to life after a number of sedate, childlike repetitions, the track is a gorgeous horn-and-strings chanty buoyed by Benedikt Hermannsson’s gentle Scandinavian accent. The straightforward delivery reminds you of Jens Lekman, and in fact the two have collaborated on the 2007 Morr Music compilation Music for Hairy Scary Monsters. (Lekman contributed vocals to a lovely song called “Aldrei” which, if you’re a Lekman fan, is worth searching out)....full text |
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| Boomkat |
| This album has been described by Benni Hemm Hemm as containing "11 smashing ballads", and indeed it does. The Icelandic songwriter is on splendid form throughout Murta St. Calunga, which exhibits all the usual tendencies towards big band grandeur and buoyant, uptempo acoustics. Opener 'Beethoven í Kaupmannahöfn' sounds like it might be a James Last reinterpretation of something from Sufjan Stevens' catalogue, serving as an effective overture to the time signature trickery of English language ditty 'Whaling In The North Atlantic', which sounds like harpoonist's drinking song arranged in the most lavish fashion. However much might be going on in these songs, the production remains beautifully rough around the edges, with the drums in particular sounding as though they've been recorded by dangling a single mic from the ceiling. Perhaps as a consequence of this, the beatless tracks tend to really glisten, rendering the sombre brass arrangements of 'Fjalla-Eyvindur' especially effective. Benni himself is on top form throughout, peaking with the Jimmy Webb-like 'Early Morning Rain', another English language recording. You can imagine him winning an audience akin to that of fellow Scandinavian Jens Lekman if there was more of this sort of thing, but then it'd be quite a shame to hear Benni abandoning his mother tongue in the name of crossover potential. In any case, Murta St. Calunga is another winning set of songs from the Icelandic troubadour. Very highly recommended....full text |
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