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Underground > Radio & Music >

The Knife

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Regrettable Juvenilia

23:50 / 21.04.06

Hanging out with Stomp - well, they did use steel drums and other percussion which was beaten with some enthusiasm during various numbers. But I don't see how this would be not in keeping with the tracks. The same goes for the trancy ringtones comment - yes, there's a big trance thing going on, those arpeggio (?) patterns could be ringtones - but they're all over Silent Shout in the first place.

I can sort of see why someone might not have enjoyed the very stagey nature of the gig - and their masks or whatever did make me think of the adverts I've seen for the Blue Man Group - but for me it made a change from yr standard gig format.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:59 / 22.04.06

Hey, Fly, don't go dissing Blue Man- their show is ACE.

Only just listened to Deep Cuts, and I have to say- Silent Shout is a million times better. Deep Cuts is cool, but I doubt I'd have checked out Silent Shout on the strength of it. Whereas I'll be bloody impressed if enough people make good enough records to push Silent Shout out of my top 5 of 2006 come year's end...

ANYWAY... the reason I came back to this thread is the track Cop from Deep Cuts. Am I the ONLY person reminded of the track of the same name by Swans? "I'm a cop... I piss in your mouth... etc" versus "Nobody beats you... like a cop... with a club..." Conceptually identical, really (check the lyrics to both- it's only the actual acts which differ). And I refuse to believe The Knife (or anyone who knows music, really) have never heard that. It gives me a warm glow to think it's been reinterpreted via the disco.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:07 / 22.04.06

I wasn't dissing the Blue Man Group - I know nothing about them that doesn't involve Tobias Funke!

It's interesting you talk about the difference between the last two Knife albums, because thinking about Harrison Ford's problems with the live show did make me think that perhaps HF is a fan of Deep Cuts, but not the new one - I like 'em both, but they are quite different beasts. In an interview I've read The Knife said that the former was the result of listening to a lot of bands like Le Tigre and deliberately trying to make a pop album, whereas Silent Shout is a reaction to that, a deliberate move in the opposite direction almost. I do like bands who make albums which are reactions to their previous one...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:40 / 22.04.06

You're right about them both being very different. They are indeed both cool, but I love Silent Shout whereas I just like Deep Cuts. Each time I listen to Silent Shout it reminds me of more things, and they're always things I'm not expecting. From Front 242 to Sleeping Dogs Wake, and even Coil at times. It's a fucking killer album, and I would like to thank you for introducing me to it- I'd never heard of the buggers before this thread, not being well-up on "young people's music".

17:54 / 22.04.06

I'm still totally about Deep Cuts, but I suspect it's more my cup of tea than it is yours Stoatie. Sadly I still haven't been able to find the time to give Silent Shout a proper listen.

04:27 / 26.07.06

So, if no-one minds me asking:

Is the first album worth getting?

08:14 / 26.07.06

Er, read the thread.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:38 / 26.07.06

I'll tell you anyway: YES.

It occurred to me recently, on hearing the new Thom Yorke album, that a lot of material on Silent Shout does the kind of thing Yorke is aiming for very well, that is to say, better.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:16 / 26.07.06

This is a pretty good interview at Pitchfork - covers the visual element of their live shows, their macabre sense of humour, various other things. Also implies it might be five years until the next album, which is a shame...

13:29 / 26.07.06

Er, read the thread.

I'm refering to the first album, The Knife. I've read the thread (it's the sort of thing I do, reading threads and all, odd!) but beyond a reference to the song Kino by Flyboy when talking about the live show, I see nothing about it.

So, if you, or anyone, could point me to where people are talking about not Deep Cuts, not Silent Shout, but The Knife, stuff I might have missed out of stupidity, I'd be thankful for the clarification and sorry for wasting people's time.

Otherwise: can someone actually answer the question? Out of a pure, merciful will?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:10 / 26.07.06

Oops. Boboss is a bad man. I am a foolish one. I know bear who sometimes posts round here has the first album, he speaks highly of it. I'm sure it's better to spend money on than whole back catalogues by many other artists!

19:12 / 26.07.06

Ach, sorry, Franca. Jumped to a conclusion and it was very much the wrong one.

Now that we've cleared that up, I should say that I haven't heard it, so can't be of much help.

20:04 / 26.07.06

It's okay.

Hmm. Was trying to at least get a picture of what to expect (seeing as how the second and third differ in sound); shame no-one has even a basic impression.

Anyway, at least one happy listener is better than... no indication at all. So thanks. I'll just get on with it.

22:32 / 24.11.06

I have purchased the first album online.It's more straightforward than 'Silent Shout', less epic than 'Deep Cuts' the arrangements sparser and the beats are a darn sight simpler.

Still completely wackjob - in a good way obviously. Well worth $10 at www.bleep.com

All Acting Regiment

13:56 / 25.11.06

Silent Shout, the album of course but specifically the title track, is great winter morning music, isn't it? Like that bit in Das Reingold that Herzog uses in Nosferatu- sounds like the earliest rays of a cold sun. If you're up all night, put the last half of Bowie's Heroes on through the darkness and then put Silent Shout on so it just catches the dawn. I love it.

Mon Oncle Ignatius

09:20 / 29.11.06

I've been inspired to download the first s/t album a couple of days ago, and (bearing in mind I have yet to hear Deep Cuts, being a bit of a convert to The Knife courtesy of Silent Shout) and have found it so far to be much more straightforward, with more use of guitars for the melodies.

However, this is on the basis of one or two listens to the whole album all the way through, so I need to go back and review it in full more before commenting much more, except to say that the reason I haven't got all the way through it yet is that I just can't stop playing "Reindeer" over and again, and to any group of people who happen to be near the stereo - including the Childe F, who has lapped it up on her first listen (it is always a good idea to check if pop music really is a hit with the kids, especially if they're five).

What can I say about this track, apart from that it won't get out of my head, even while I'm listening to the new Tom Waits album? It starts off all singalong bright, then gets a dirty analogue skronk on board to drive off into the wilds of wintery delerium, and a beautiful resonant bassline rides out the rest of the seven minutes of intense, rewindable otherness with tones that shiver my insides. I like this song.

ONLY NICE THINGS

10:41 / 30.11.06

If you're up all night, put the last half of Bowie's Heroes on through the darkness and then put Silent Shout on so it just catches the dawn. I love it.>

Ah-hah! Thanks, Legs - that has filled in something I was trying to put together while listening to "Silent Shout". Many of the songs remind me, specifically, of "The Secret Life of Arabia". Mildly annoyingly, I lost the Knife's first album between it being delivered and putting it in my CD player, so I now have to prove to myself that it has entered a state of quantum unfindability before replacing it. Silent Shout is doing it for me for the moment, however. I dont feel quite such a disjoint between "Deep Cuts" and this as others seem to - same snares and metallic drum sounds, and the same wonderfully bleak vocals. Am I right in thinking that the male vocals are in fact female vocals which have been electronically doctored?

Mon Oncle Ignatius

10:49 / 30.11.06

Am I right in thinking that the male vocals are in fact female vocals which have been electronically doctored?

I believe you are - they sound like that to me.

Having made my way through most of The Knife now (though I still persist in skipping forward, then rewinding, "Reindeer") I would say there's still the same sort of beats and squidgy noises going on there as appear on Silent Shout. It's more that the latter feels more developed somehow, more sure of where it's going and how to deviate yet more excitingly from the pop template they so busily reworked on the first album.

There is much on The Knife in particular which makes me think of Laurie Anderson's more poppy moments; the female-to-male vocal processing on Silent Shout does as well - cf. her "Hansel And Gretel".

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:49 / 30.11.06

I've also just downloaded The Knife, and as my role in this thread seems to have been so far to be the bloke who points out things that they remind him of that he wasn't really expecting, I gotta say- when I hear I Take Time, I'm thinking Throbbing Gristle's Hot On The Heels Of Love.

This is, incidentally, a recommendation.

11:52 / 02.12.06

More later, but for now:

I Love The Knife.

And yeah, i read an interview with Olof where he says all the vocals on Silent Shout are Karin's (apart from Jay Jay Johnson's part in Marble House). He says he isn't really into vocal stuff and prefers minimalist techno. There seems to be a certain tension between K. an O.'s musical preferences that adds a lot to their albums. But more later.

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