Today ALL SCANDINAVIAN welcome another guest blogger to our ranks: Ben H. Murray (follow him on Twitter). Every now and then he’ll share his thoughts and recommendations on new and interesting music, and his first piece is a look at some of the Icelandic acts we should expect will make their mark on 2010.

The weather in Iceland is a bit like the music scene: if you don’t like it, wait ten minutes and something different will be along. Thus, predicting who will be stood astride the North Atlantic island looking down at the other musicians who aren’t riding a hype-fuelled bandwagon to stardom by the end of 2010 is tricky, apart from in the case of one band – For A Minor Reflection (photo).

The post-rock quartet – purveyors of Explosions In The Sky-style compositions of considerable complexity, vision and variation – trounced every other new band at the recent Airwaves festival in terms of positive reviews, fan adulation and international media coverage and they also played an exceptional gig in London shortly afterwards to a rapt audience of journalists and industry types.

It was one of the most adept performances I’ve seen in a quite some time and, considering the band are barely out of their teens, their potential is absolutely enormous. A new record is out next year and if it’s even better than 2009’s opus ‘Reistu Þig Við, Sólin Er Komin Á
Loft…’ then they simply cannot fail.

On a related note, Jónsi & Alex, a side of project of Jón Þór Birgisson (lead singer of some other Icelandic post-rock band called Sigur Rós…) and American artist Alex Somers, have been the subject of a reams of press attention and critical praise around their debut release ‘Riceboy Sleeps’. If they continue on their upward trajectory and break out of the slightly artsy niche their experimental ambient music currently occupies then they could be a solid bet for a very successful 2010.

There’s pop, too
Iceland seems to do pop music either very well or very badly (don’t mention Eurobandið) and Páll Óskar is the current benchmark for credible pop in Reykjavik. But several others are vying to take his camp-but-cool crown, with Hafdis Huld (who hit the number one spot this autumn with her new album ‘Synchronized Swimmers’ and single ‘Kongulo’) in prime position to take her cute and eminently amusing pop songs to a much wider audience in the next few months.

Her album, recorded in England with a top producer, is being released in Europe soon and this, combined with her seemingly endless appetite for touring, might well see her match fellow singer/songwriter Emiliana Torrini’s global success, as might Eliza Newman with her forthcoming single and album releases.

Hjaltalín, who had a busy 2009 with a UK and European tour and album release, have also attracted considerable attention internationally, particularly in America where comparisons to Arcade Fire do them no harm whatsoever. Their album ‘Sleepdrunk Seasons’ has received, almost without exception, universal praise and if this level of musical competence can be matched in sales and big concert venues to utilize their mammoth sound, then they’ll be very happy by the end of next year.

Metal and air-conditioned feel good
The Icelandic metal scene is also particularly strong and next year will, I’m sure, see several bands breaking out from the relatively low-key circuit in Reykjavik across to Europe and the UK. Kerrang, a British metal magazine, is a great champion of Icelandic metal and their annual Airwaves night is often a good indication of what bands will be filling their influential review and interview pages in the next year.

The eclectic line up this year included Ten Steps Away, Noise, Shogun, Klink and Dikta – take your pick from any of those excellent bands but maybe Ten Steps Away’s polished stadium rock and Noise’s lineup of seasoned metal musicians make these two most likely to do well in the next few months.

And who knows, maybe even 101’s in-house band FM Belfast will get round to selling some records abroad with their new album. The rest of Europe could do with some of their cheery, carefree dance music after this year but I suspect GusGus will outsell them with their latest offering, which is sure to be played endlessly in air-conditioned clubs and bars across the continent.

Who do you think will make a mark on 2010?