The remoteness of the Knife (aka Olof and Karin Dreijer) and the chilliness of their music makes it easy to conjure up images of the duo working in a studio that resembles the Fortress of Solitude, playing instruments carved out of ice. But if the vibrant pop of Deep Cuts was like the northern lights, then Silent Shout is a sunless, vast expanse of tundra. A much darker, more ambitious set of songs than the Knife's previous work, the album finds the Dreijers stretching their sonics and downplaying the overt poppiness of Deep Cuts and The Knife. But, while Silent Shout isn't as whimsical or immediate as the Knife has been in the past, it's just as inventive, if not more so. Karin Dreijer's vocals are more striking than ever; treated as another instrument in the arrangements, they're layered, pitch-shifted, and tweaked until there's almost nothing left but tones and emotions. Her tweaked whispers on "Silent Shout" add to the song's pulsing, restrained, but very real menace; on "Na Na Na," she sounds like an alien diva. Likewise, Karin's whimsical, detailed lyrics also have a darker cast, offering glimpses of strange people in stranger situations. "From Off to On" deals with voyeurism and TV addicts; on "Like a Pen," Dreijer describes a character's struggle with body issues with disturbing clarity: "Sharpen my body like a pen...something too small for a lens." Many of the album's songs -- especially "Forest Families," "The Captain," and "Still Light" -- have a hushed, eerie intensity, but Silent Shout also sets off flares of emotion against its frosty backdrops. The fantastic single "We Share Our Mother's Health" is sleek yet chaotic, with marauding vocals set against frantic synths and beats that sound like the aural equivalent of blood bouncing on ice. The equally fantastic but completely different-sounding "Marble House" -- which was inspired by the classic French film The Umbrellas of Chebourg -- embodies doomed romance with its gliding melody and brittle castanet rhythms. The Knife eventually shows off its more playful side with the lumbering, cartoonishly macho "One Hit," which gives the album's sinister bent a mischievous twist. Truly unique -- even for a group as different as this one is -- Silent Shout is the Knife's most compelling work yet.
Well aren't I lazy, its 9 days into 2007 (GMT) and it's taken me till now to post up a best of 2006. The year started off pretty awful, didn't get excited by much...then BANG... tons of great music. And due to a much needed subscription to eMusic I got access to tons of great new music without bankrupting myself (all it means is that I'm unlikely to buy much major label product in 2007 unless I...
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Love this time of year when the 'best of' lists reveal all the goods I've missed out on. The video for 'Silent Shout' by the Knife just creeps me out. So good.http://www.theknife.net/o0ooo.htmlHappy new year.
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This one goes out to sir Oats... a man on a mission to get some Arpeggiator into your Wednesday funktionI have to admit.... I would love to go to see the knife... when are they coming out with a new album anyways?
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I've had a huge chunk of a short story I'd been working on in one of my books for months. Now that I am copying it to my hard drive I am inclined to share. I must warn you though, its not pretty. Hopefully its pretty good, but its only been rewritten once, still kinda rough. Its the story of Dan, a trust baby that has been living life in excess and hurt many along the way. Now he finds he'll ha...
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At the Mezzanine.Get'm before they gone - tickets - I know I got mine.The Knife site5 good reasons to go:1. They're Swedish and Sweden is a fun place.2. Those crazy bird masks they might wear (myspace link).3. Live visuals by Andreas Nilsson, director of their Silent Shout (youtube link) and Heartbeats (link to Indiebass's mog post) videos.4. All the cool kids are listening (mog link).5. They ...
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Love this time of year when the 'best of' lists reveal all the goods I've missed out on. The video for 'Silent Shout' by the Knife just creeps me out. So good.http://www.theknife.net/o0ooo.htmlHappy new year.
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The new video for "We Share Our Mother's Health" does nothing at all to dissuade me from my theory that The Knife are really a pair of alien space whales. In fact, I think it helps prove me right.
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Well aren't I lazy, its 9 days into 2007 (GMT) and it's taken me till now to post up a best of 2006. The year started off pretty awful, didn't get excited by much...then BANG... tons of great music. And due to a much needed subscription to eMusic I got access to tons of great new music without bankrupting myself (all it means is that I'm unlikely to buy much major label product in 2007 unless I...
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It's been a hot minute or two since we've heard any new Knife material. Maybe this little remix will keep us satisfied until we do. I'm not making any promises though! Related posts Britney is a Sexy Schizophrenic, M.I.A. is Pregnant (25) New TV On The Radio - Golden Age (9) New TV On The Radio - Dancing [...]
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I hope all of you guys had a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving break! Mine was pretty terrible for various reasons. Thankfully it is over, and now I can wait for Christmas break. Here are some songs that I have gotten used to listening during the cold winter months, or ones I figure would sounds cool when the snow is accumulating. Put on some headphones and take a walk against the winter bree...
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Deep Cuts was catchy, but Silent Shout is amazing. The Knife have moulded their sound into a seamless musical world of fantasy, bewitching and sometimes frightening, that you'll never want to leave. "Na Na Na" is probably the lightest and most humorous track on the album (it makes me think of a ghost factory manufacturing giant puffs of pink marshmallows that float away into the sky), while t...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Silent Shout |
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| 2 Neverland |
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| 3 The Captain |
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| 4 We Share Our Mothers' Health |
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| 5 Na Na Na |
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| 6 Marble House |
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| 7 Like a Pen |
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| 8 From off to On |
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| 9 Forest Families |
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| 10 One Hit |
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| 11 Still Light |
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| 12 Silent Shout [Video][Multimedia Track] |
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 "Silent Shout")
