“Most art (and music) is shit. But it’s worth listening to and look at, ‘cause when you finally see something you like, it’s fantastic."
Believe us when we say that we think you’ll find something to love in the magical world of The Knife. As their name, and the above volley of abuse, suggests, The Knife are not a conventional band content to offer vacuous platitudes served on a diet of mediocrity. Nope, they mean business and they’ve got the manifesto to prove it.
A brother and sister duo (Karin and Olof) from Stockholm in Sweden, they claim their music – which is a glorious blend of melodic electro-pop, machine-made rhythms and dark, curveball twists – is nothing more than pop, yet their songs speak of an informed and subversive political agenda. They refuse to play live - but don’t think this is a bold statement - and deride rock’n’roll for being outdated.
"We want to react against the organic, improvised expression. We wanna do a more synthetic, weird and non-organic expression. Within the artificial expression new moods and spheres arise. Electronic music is absolutely the music of the future. Machine music is good."
Their new instalment of “emotional electronic punk pop” is the album, Deep Cuts, is already a bestseller and Grammy winner at home in Sweden, and is now picking up plaudits across Europe. As usual, it’s suffused with a political edge. This time it's feminism.
"When we were making the album we were thinking a lot about making music which could have a dialogue with different kinds of people," they suggest. "For example we wanted the feminist issue to get out to a broader audience, not only to those already familiar with it. So we tried to package the music into something we thought could create that kind of communication or dialogue."
Deep Cuts is a fantastic record and clearly explains why Karin and Olof Dreijer have swiftly become one of Sweden’s hottest acts. Recorded in Karin’s basement, the result is an album that marries emotive song writing with forward thinking production.
Lead track and recent single ‘Heartbeats’ is a crunchy gothic electro number, where Karin indulges her Siouxsie Sioux fetish to the max. ‘Girls’ Night Out’ is dark ‘80s pop that is 50 per cent stupid, 50 per cent clever – like all the best pop – and the anthemic, multi-coloured electronica of ‘You Take My Breath Away’ betrays a sense of humour that is prevalent throughout the album’s 17 tracks.
Elsewhere Karin gets salacious on ‘Pass This On’ as she suggests ‘I’m in love with your brother/ What’s his name?’, the folktronic ‘One For You’ suggests a Bjork meets Four Tet crush and the machine gun fusillade of Euro pop monster ‘Listen Now’ is a full on freak out with oriental overtones: a feat that’s replicated on ‘She’s Having A Baby’.
However, cheeky, art house cuts only tell half the story. The minimal r’n’b grind of ‘You Make Me Like Charity’ lambastes those who believe it’s better to give money to charity than paying their taxes; the lush, slinky house rhythms of ‘This Is Now’ is Carl Craig’s Paperclip People on an away day to Scandinavia and the grand, cinematic, instrumental ‘Behind The Bushes’ is genuinely affecting in its melancholic and haunting splendour.
We’re talking an utterly unique proposition. Basically The Knife are one scar you’ll be proud of.
Deep Cuts, by The Knife, is released on Rabid on 27 September 2004
Number of Discs: 2
Label: V2
ASIN: B0002W1B0O
Catalogue Number: RABID021
Why not buy a copy of Deep Cuts online and save yourself some money.
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