Quarashi

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Quarashi
General information
origin Reykjavík , Iceland
Genre (s) Alternative hip-hop , alternative rock , rap-rock , rapcore , crossover
founding 1996, 2011
resolution 2004
Current occupation
Sölvi Blöndal
Hössi Ólafsson
rap
 Steinar Orri "Stoney" Fjeldsted
rap
 Ómar Örn Hauksson aka Ómar Swarez
rap
 Egill Olafur "Tiny" Thorarensen

Quarashi is an Icelandic crossover band from Reykjavík , which was founded in 1996, disbanded in 2004 and has been active again since 2011.

history

The band was founded in the spring of 1996 as a nameless project before the name Quarashi was chosen in the fall. The founding members were the drummer and producer Sölvi Blöndal and the singer and rapper Hössi Ólafsson, who had already written the first Quarashi songs Beam Me Up , Speedo , Switchstance and Lone Rangers in the winter of 1995/1996. Sölvi Blöndal made a demo track of, rapped to the Hössi Ólafsson. Both had already worked together in the punk band in 2001. The line-up was supplemented in early 1996 by the rappers Steinar Orri "Stoney" Fjeldsted and Ómar Örn Hauksson aka Ómar Swarez. Sölvi Blöndal and Ómar Örn Hauksson had known each other since childhood. "Quarashi" was a surname of the Prophet Mohammed and a nickname Steinar Orri Fjeldsteds. In September 1996 Sölvi Blöndal, Steinar Orri Fjeldsted and the sound engineer Hrannar Ingimarsson recorded the EP Switchstance in Sölvi Blöndal's garage. During the recording, both of them caught a cold, whereupon they contacted Hössi Ólafsson, who finished the recording in October. All 500 copies made of the EP were sold in the first week. From September 1996 to September of the following year, the band worked on their first album. In October 1997 the group's debut album was recorded, of which over 6,000 units were sold, which earned the group a gold record in Iceland. That same year, Quarashi opened up for The Fugees and The Prodigy . This gave Sölvi Blöndal the opportunity to remix the Prodigy song Diesel Power . Before the period was released, the band also took a break: Sölvi Blöndal went on a six-month backpacking trip through South America , Hössi Ólafsson studied for a year at the university and Steinar Orri Fjeldsted went to America . In 1999, the second album Xeneizes followed, of which around 6,000 copies were sold and again brought in a gold record. The album was released in cooperation with the label Japis , which in turn established a contact between the band and EMI , whereupon the group was able to live from their music from now on. The band then went to America for three months to record new songs. Shortly before, Ómar Örn Hauksson, who had previously only been active in the band sporadically, became a permanent member. In addition, the band held US performances, including in New York City . The group later signed a contract with Time Bomb Recordings , but the label sold the contract to Columbia Records in 2001 . This delayed the release of the next album. While waiting, Sölvi Blöndal and Hössi Ólafsson worked for the director Bergur Þór Ingólfsson , creating the soundtrack for a play based on the book Kristnihald undir Jökli by Halldór Laxness . The soundtrack was released on CD . In 2002 the album Jinx was released , after which the band went on a world tour. The album was the group's first US album release and peaked at number 104 on the Billboard 200 . On it you can hear partly real drums and partly a drum computer . The first song to be released was Stick 'Em Up as a single. The video for this was nominated at the MTV Video Music Awards 2002 in the category Best Art Direction , but could not prevail against Coldplay's Trouble . The song is also featured on the soundtrack for the movie Get Out of Orange County . After finishing the tour, Hössi Ólafsson left the cast shortly before Christmas 2002 to devote himself to his university studies. His resignation was announced on January 3, 2003. The band took a break for the next six months, after which they released the song Mess It Up in collaboration with the rapper Opee. In autumn 2003 it was announced that they had found a replacement for Ólafsson in Egill Olafur "Tiny" Thorarensen. After the release of the song Race City , they went on a tour of Japan in January 2004 . Then the album Guerilla Disco was released in Iceland and Japan. In the following months after the release it came to the dissolution, also due to the moderate success of the album.

In the spring of 2011 there were rumors of a reunion concert for an Icelandic summer festival. After these rumors were not confirmed by the band at first, they were finally represented at the Besta Útihátíðin in 2011 . This was followed by two sold out concerts in Reykjavík. Due to the 15-year existence of the group in the same year, they released their first best-of album, which contains not only well-known songs but also unreleased material. Three years later the band played on the Þjóðhátíð . In the same year, Rock On was also released, the first single in ten years. At the beginning of 2016, the group announced their return to the Þjóðhátið to celebrate their 20th anniversary.

style

Kenyon Hopkin from Allmusic assigned the group to rap-rock . Christian Graf described the group's music in his Nu Metal and Crossover Lexicon as rapcore . Jinx is a mixture of "heavy bass lines, harsh guitars, wild scratching and funk hammering, which was largely synthetically produced in the studio". Marcus Schleutermann from Rock Hard described Jinx as a mixture of Beastie Boys and Aerosmith . The former would resemble Quarashi mainly due to the similar voices and the "dynamic rhymeflow", while "the dirty riffs " would remind of Joe Perry . The album is particularly suitable for fans of the crossover of the early 1990s.

Discography

  • 1996: Switchstance (EP, Lax Records)
  • 1997: Quarashi (album, Lax Records)
  • 1997: Vinyl Single # 1 (Single, Lax Records)
  • 1998: Vinyl Single # 2 (Single, Lax Records)
  • 1998: Vinyl Single # 3 (Single, Lax Records)
  • 1999: Xeneizes (album, Lax Records / Japis )
  • 2001: Kristnihald Undir Jökli (album, Sproti )
  • 2001: JINX 3 Songs (EP, Columbia Records )
  • 2001: Stick 'Em Up (single, Columbia Records)
  • 2001: Selling Ice to Greenland (EP, Columbia Records)
  • 2002: Street Sampler (EP, Columbia Records)
  • 2002: Jinx (Album, Columbia Records)
  • 2002: Mr. Jinx (We Got It Right) (Single, Columbia Records)
  • 2004: Guerilla Disco (Album, Skífan / Dennis Records )
  • 2005: Boxe Set (compilation, LAXmenn)
  • 2011: Anthology (compilation, LAXmenn)
  • 2014: Rock On (Single, LAXmenn)
  • 2016: Chicago (single, LAXmenn)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h The history of Quarashi. thequarashivibe.com, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e BIO. quarashi.net, archived from the original on June 12, 2008 ; accessed on April 13, 2020 .
  3. ^ Savon: Ómar. thequarashivibe.com, accessed May 15, 2020 .
  4. ^ A b c Christian Graf: Nu Metal and Crossover Lexicon . Lexikon Imprint Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-89602-515-5 , p. 227 .
  5. ↑ a b c Kenyon Hopkin: Quarashi. Allmusic , accessed April 23, 2020 .
  6. ↑ CHART HISTORY. billboard.com, archived from the original on December 25, 2015 ; accessed on April 23, 2020 .
  7. ^ MTV Video Music Awards (VMA). Internet Movie Database , accessed May 16, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Marcus Schleutermann: Quarashi . Jinx. In: Rock Hard . No. 188 , January 2003.