Posted by Budgie at April 18, 2006 01:05 PM

The Knife...

I'm going to get this out of the way first, I love The Knife. Their new album, "Silent Shout", is great. I mean, really great. Really, really great. Just now I can't go a day without listening to it. Do you know why? No, it's not because it's stuck in my CD player, though it may as well be, it's because it's great. I love it.

Their last album, "Deep Cuts", was also great, but this, this is different...

The mysterious brother and sister duo have dropped their musical temperature down a few degrees, stripping away the warm fuzziness that was on their debut album and replacing it with a more clinical, precise, spacial, hypnotic, almost colder tone. The thing is, you could have seen it coming...

Track : THE KNIFE - HEARTBEATS (ONE MUSIC SESSION)

Everyone knows "Heartbeats" by now. If not The Knife's version, you'll know the Jose Gonzalez cover that was all over the TV with the Sony Bravia "bouncing balls" advert. Both versions were previously posted up on The Pipe back in november of last year. This version of "Heartbeats" is from a One Music session that predated the UK release of "Deep Cuts". It seems to be the first clue on how their sound would evolve. Basically it's a stripped down reworking of the track with a killer synth line bubbling away underneath it with some glorious, almost OMD'ish style chords on the peaks and at the end. Not to mention some bits that sound like that Berlin track from "Top Gun"...

Track : THE KNIFE - PASS THIS ON (LIVE)

The next clue was at an infamous gig at the ICA in London in which the band appeared and only played one song. The one song was this. Again, the original can be found on "Deep Cuts", but this is so far removed from it with only the steel-drum sounding riff and vocals remaining. Saying that, the vocals start to struggle to be heard whilst a brooding bass hum and another bubbling synth line, that sounds like it could escape out of control at any minute, take over the track. Stunning stuff.

Track : THE KNIFE - THE CAPTAIN

So now we come to a track from "Silent Shout". I was going to post up the title track, and the first release from the album, as sonically it would make perfect sense following the previous two tracks. But, I advise you to go and watch the frankly downright freaky video for it instead... The link is below.

Then it boiled down to either "Like A Pen", which reminds me of Tyree's Chicago House monster "Acid Crash" for some reason, and "The Captain".

I chose the latter as it just pushes all my right buttons. Minimal, ambient intro, some great echo effects when the main track eventually kicks in and the clincher is the unsettling vocals. They've taken both their voices and twisted them to become this weird hybrid that sounds like a bad Japanese impression. Very odd indeed. But absolutely attention grabbing. Definitely one of the albums many highlights.

Did I mention I love the album?

Did I mention I love The Knife?

Go visit : The Knife
Go Visit : The Knife @ MySpace

Go Buy : The Knife - Deep Cuts
Go Buy : The Knife - Silent Shout
Go Buy : The Knife - Silent Shout (album download - mp3)

Go Watch : The Knife - Silent Shout (Video)
Go Watch : The Knife - Pass This On (Video)
Go Watch : The Knife - Heartbeats (Video)

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum.

Ta,
Budgie

p.s - The Pipe is now 2! Happy Birthday to me!