Review: Screaming Masterpiece

Screaming Masterpiece
Ari Magnusson

Milan Records
Street: 03.06

Wow, what an interesting concept for a music documentary! I thought to myself as I sat down to watch Screaming Masterpiece. Unfortunately, interesting concept is as far as the critical acclaim train goes. What is supposed to be an overview of the Icelandic music scene is B.B. and A.B. (Before Bjork and After Bjork) ends up being a muddled look at Bjork and her hot new contemporaries, Sigur Ros. It is as if the directors had an idea, but their eyes were bigger than their stomach. What the viewer is treated to are too many clips of live bands, not enough interviews talking about contemporary Icelandic music (except from Bjork, go figure) and a whole lot of interviews with people like a guy from an important music rag and some douche bag from Billboard. Who cares? The only thing that was interesting was a segment on a documentary about Icelandic punk rock from the 80s. I want to see that instead. A little more focus and a lot more planning would make this interesting concept leave the critical acclaim station, and head to bigger and brighter destinations besides that bargin bin. -Erik Lopez