Posted on February 6, 2009 - by Mark Zonda

I want… sugarcubes!

Guess each of us had his first approach to this intense and bizarre artist named Bjork. Each of us in his or her unique way. Just like meeting  an alien out of the blue or discovering that Father Christmas is nothing but some gipsy  drunk bozo rent from the street. Speaking for myself first time was from a TV set from my grandparent’s house, in a very very random random moment. The tube was tuned on MTV (I was very young, we still watched tv and we had to tune it to get stations).

Suddenly there was this kinda japanese girl riding a hawk and shouting at me from the screen while pastic insects were eaten by the band if not  leaded in a flying swarm through the sky. Put down like that you might think this might be a note from some sort of John Lennon on acid. Not at all.  It was “Birthday” from Sugar Cubes, and the chanteuse name was Bjork. The manga version of The Cure. The song mentioned by John Peel as “single of the year”.

I came back to Sykurmolarnir (Sugars Cubes in Icelandic) later in the years, once I became a Bjork addicted via her solo “Debut” and “Post-Debut”. There was a friend of mine who owned all the vinyls, so it was a good reference and guide to get all the albums, and starting to fall in love with the band even more with “The Anchor Girl” solo career. Guess part of the catchy appeal the Sugars had on me was (strong pop earworm hits and the most amazing voice in the world beside) the strong resemblance to another (American) band I used to adore: The B-52’s.

“Hit”, from “Stick Around For Joy” is for sure one of the song I loved the most in my entire life. A pure explosion of sudden clueless happiness. I can clearly remember the younger version of me, rushing at home, switching on the stereo, closing the door, turning THIS song at its maximum volume and letting myself go at the biggest smile in the world slowly sliding to the floor back on the door. Can’t remember who was the girl who caused that reaction on me, but I will remember that moment for a lifetime along with the magnificence of this song and the pure life that Bjork’s voice has breath into it with it’s warm, powerful and authentic interpretation.

The second half of y2k was time for reunions, and the band had a great gig to celebrate the 20th birthday of The Cubes (2006). Guess some things are just like the rotten bugs that aimed to reach me from that TV Set. They diserve to be left behind the screen preserving three of the most sweetest pop albums ever made, leaving us with crystallized charming memories of delicious demons frozen in time by unmelt sugar cubes.

The SugarCubes - Deus (Remix)

Waiting for our sight:

• What Will Replace MTV? (15)
• Our last year of independent? (7)
• Funny Little Bunny (6)
• Alice Nine (5)
• Let’s grow old together… and die at the same time (4)