Eclectic probably the best word to define this artistic collective born in Reykyavik, Iceland, on 1995 during the making of the movie "Nautn/Pleasure". Over the years, what started as a film crew evolved into a unique musical project.

Their first album Polydistortion's recording took only 11 days. It was released in 1997 under the label 4AD. It featured the voices Daníel Ágúst, Magnùs Jonsson and Hafdis Huld (all former actors) with programming and producing by Biggi Veira and Magnus Gudmundsson, both from the electronic duo T-World. Polydistortion's eerily playful and arty electronica earned Gusgus a place in the Icelandic indie scene.

Two years later, with a couple of members less and a new stance, the band released their second album "This Is Normal". Quite different from its predecessor, This Is Normal was much more of a pop record, which tossed funk, trip hop, drum'n'bass beats together creating an elegant and light-hearted mix of easy listening tunes with strange love and gospel lyrics.

International Critic awarded This Is Normal with a warm welcome, thus positioning GusGus as the secong most important artists in Iceland, right after Björk. Ladyshave, the biggest hit on the album, with its freakish lyrics about female depilation gone awry and its even freakier video, even made it to latin american MTV. This is how I first heard of them.

After collaborations with some well-known DJs, being part of a couple of soundtracks ("Anthem" on Pi's Soundtrack and "Gun", on 1998's La Femme Nikita's) and being part of several compilations, Gusgus released 2000's "Gusgus Vs. T-World", a compilation of Biggi Veira's project songs from 1994 to 1996 was Gusgus last release with its original members. The group never officially disbanded, but after a two year silence. everyone just assumed they had.

The surprise came in August of 2002, when "Attention" was released under Moonshine Records. After the release of GusGus versus T-World, the band left 4AD arquing the label demanded them to be more "under, drammatic and boring", which clashed completely with the band's new concept of minimalistic, lustful and dance-floor friendly music.

At this point, little of the original Gusgus line-up was left. Biggi Veira, Magnus Gudmundsson (aka Buckmaster de la Cruz), Steph Stephenssen (President Bongo) and the new singer Urdur Hakonardottir (aka DJ Earth) are the new Gusgus. Whether better or worse than the original, that's for you to decide, but they still keep the eclecticism and freshness that marked Gusgus uniqueness.

Corrections and comments most welcome at aliene@plastic-star.net