Guest blogger Sharyn Goldyn recommends another one of her favorite artists.

Two years ago, a friend of mine came home from Iceland Airwaves with a list of new bands to listen to, and on the top of that bill was Mugison—an artist who, he swears, had the crowd climbing the walls of the bar to get in. He passed on a copy of Mugimama, is This Monkey Music? (Ipecac) to me and I immediately understood the fascination. It was dark. It had some strange electronic shit going on. It also had this gentle, folk vibe on some songs. It wasn’t long before it became one of my favorite records.

I wasn’t alone. The record debuted in 2004 at #1 on Icelandic charts. The song “Murr Murr” was named best song in the 2004 Icelandic music awards and Mugimama was named best record. In the states, it was awarded one of CNN's top albums of 2005 and was Paste Magazine's #7 record of the year.

Despite the success in his hometown, it seems as if it has taken the rest of the world a little longer to catch on to this guy with a guitar and laptop. (I have yet to meet anyone who has heard of him here in the Midwest). Luckily, Mugison has been busy recording a batch of new songs at Sigur Ros’ studio. He has a new record out called Mugiboogie which he promises will be available to the rest of the world “very soon.” Currently, it’s only available on his website—which seems a little tricky since most of it is in Icelandic. Translator, anyone, so we can get some news on him?

Based on the spattering of YouTube videos up on the website and the two new songs on myspace, the tracks seem to have a surprising bluesy, gritty rock feel and they totally kick ass.