Kaktus Einarsson - Kick The Ladder

Stepping out from the protective umbrella of his band Fufanu, Kaktus Einarsson has released his solo debut album.

Whether it is geysers, the island of Surtsey off its coast, or the surface evidence of tectonic plates (on the bucket list is to straddle the Eurasian and North American plates), Iceland is a place of natural beauty and wonder. You can now add Kick The Ladder to the list.

For an ostensibly debut album, Einarsson has used his experiences of being in bands and recording from the age of 10 to great effect. Kick The Ladder is fully formed, coherent in sound and in theme.

Opening is the eponymous title track. With its ruminations on time and how its ladder can stopping us from moving onwards and upwards, it looks both forward and backward, imploring us to use the former to help with the latter. Musically it has a rhythm and a flow, just like time, and the careful and sporadic use of electronics and sax feel like the wind and ripples of time that emanate from the choices we make.

Ocean's Heart is a genuine pop song. It has an arly-80's production style from Kurt Uenala who has worked with Depeche Mode, Dave Gahan, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club to name but three. Its chorus soars as high as the air Einarsson sings about.

Hypnotized takes aim at the Icelandic Government's decision to deport immigrant families, even those with children. Asking "Are the children scared? Do they belong with us here?" and declaring that "Baby, we're hypnotized, and spent most of our lives trying to feel alive. Scam of a paradise", Einarsson is on scathing form.

It is this interaction with surroundings that Einarsson draws much inspiration from:

Every song on this album is a love letter to my environment, and my surroundings. Some of the songs are a dialogue between two people, others might be written to nature, and what is happening to the planet

This care and concern for our natural environment are expressed in Daydream Echo. Damning unnecessary construction Einarsson sings "We've built up towers at every plane, to shadow the dirt. 'Cause from above it's all the same, nothing in between".

It's not all doom and gloom due to the advent of the Anthropocene Age. There is the aforementioned Ocean's Heart, and one of my personal highlights - Story of Charms. Organ chords are played throughout evoking a fairground in full flow, and the interplay between piano and guitar in the chorus is a delight.

There is also an experimental side to the album. Einarsson collaborated with Thibault Gomez, the French prepared piano experimentalist. Gomez provided all piano, organs, the harmonium and various keyboard parts on the whole album. The beat that propels Space Soul was made by using a piano as a "drum machine", recording the percussive sounds of its strings being hit.

For a young soul, though replete with nearly two decades of experience, there is a side yet unmentioned to Einarsson -he is a great editor. Some of the ideas, lyrical or otherwise, could have left Kick The Ladder overwrought and bogged down. Instead, clocking in at 12 tracks and roughly 50 minutes in length the album always feels like it ends too soon, but with the impulse to play it again straight away to discover things you missed last time round. By leaving us wanting more, Einarsson's talent is clear to see.

Kick The Ladder by Kaktus Einarsson is out now on One Little Independent records and can be purchased here.

Kaktus Einarsson
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