Bad Taste (record label)
| Bad Taste Ltd. | |
|---|---|
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| Founded | 1986 |
| Founder |
Ásmundur Jónsson Einar Örn Benediktsson Bragi Ólafsson Friðrik Erlingsson Þór Eldon Ólafur Engilberts Sigtryggur Baldursson Björk Guðmundsdóttir |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | Iceland |
| Location | Reykjavík |
| Official website | http://www.smekkleysa.net/ |
Bad Taste (known as Smekkleysa in Icelandic, literally Tastelessness) is one of Iceland’s most important record labels; located in Reykjavík and known worldwide for being home to The Sugarcubes, it also publishes poetry books, short films, greeting cards and Icelandic gifts. Bad Taste should not be confused with Bad Taste Records, a distinct record label based in Sweden.
After the bankruptcy of Gramm Records, and the demise of KUKL, one of Iceland’s most important groups during the eighties, Einar Örn Benediktsson, one of the vocalists of KUKL and Ásmundur Jónsson from Gramm, with some of the former musicians from KUKL and members of surrealistic group called Medúsa, convened to create a record company called Smekkleysa in 1986. Later, it was renamed to its English translation, Bad Taste, after Pablo Picasso’s manifesto: “Good taste and frugality are the enemies of creativity”.
Smekkleysa’s first work was a postcard drawn by Friðrik Erlingsson, who at that time was the guitar player of Sykurmolarnir (Icelandic for The Sugarcubes), a band led by Einar Örn and Björk. This piece of art contained the faces of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, a map of Iceland and the flags of the USSR and the United States as background, due to the Reykjavík Peace Summit that was to take place by October, 1986. Around 5,000 copies of this image were sold and the funds were used by the group to release their first record, a 7” vinyl single by Sykurmolarnir titled Einn Mol'á Mann (“One Cube per Person”) which contained the Icelandic versions of "Birthday" and "Cat", two songs that would appear later on their first album, Life's Too Good in 1987 through Elektra Records; an album that served to boost the international acclaim of The Sugarcubes.
However, Einn Mol'á Mann did not sell as expected, because alternative music had always had difficulty reaching the public and most of the bands from the underground scene used to sell their works at cafés. Until 2000, this single was still available from the Ordering Department created in 1992.
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