February 11th, 2006
The Knife
There’s a Swedish band called The Knife, that’s about to release their new album next week (for Sweden – internationally, that spells March). I’m in awe of their latest album, “Silent Shout”; drawing influence from a lot of things, e.g. Japanese harmonies, feminism, Sabres of Paradise, Laurie Anderson, The Horrorist and communism, this is both a melodical and soundscaped album, mashing electronic sounds with great vocals.
The band, consisting of siblings Karin and Olof Dreijer, aren’t as important as their music, or so they say. In great, select tradition, the band covers their faces with masks on all pictures (as seen here, taken from the cover of Dagens Nyheter as published today), will not tour, have distorted their voices when interviewed on air1 and wanted Sony to “bleed” as they paid for permission to use “Heartbeats”, a track by The Knife, in an ad where Sony launched thousands of colourful balls onto a street.
The new album is very evocative. I’d say it’s an album describing feminism, politics and humanism in a good way. The music in itself is very electronic, melodic as hell at times, and actually reminded me of Jean-Michel Jarre’s “The Concerts in China“. I guess the music-label Warp is mad for not having snagged The Knife, but they’re on their own label, Rabid Records.
Here’s a small sample of “We Share Our Mother’s Health”, one of my favourite tracks off “Silent Shout”. Don’t get angry at me for cutting it off just as it really gets flying – buy the album! Instructions on how to, will follow.
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So, how do you order it? If you’re not from Sweden, you just have to wait some, as it’s released in March. If you are Swedish, though, just click right here and you’ll order it through Bengans; they say you’ll have the CD in your mailbox on Wednesday, when it’s released in Sweden.
Check this band out and do yourself a favour.
December 30th, 2006 at 00:54
[...] The Knife – “Silent Shout“: when I first heard this album I was out taking pictures in the early hours on a Sunday, snow everywhere while hearing the siblings Drejer pushing analogue bits arranged in such a matter that I got really, really scared. Not frightened as such, but I remember thinking to myself that this may be the best electronic album I was to hear in a long, long time. I still have not heard anything electronic to out-shine it since its release. I’ve written about it here. By the way, here’s the funniest review I’ve seen about this album; makes me wonder if Q Magazine are regretting these sour words: Q Magazine: A hideous mess of electro noodling and maddeningly obtuse, tuneless vocals. [May 2006, p.126] [...]