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Normally I don’t write a second post on a group, but having listened to Silent Shout by The Knife a few times now, I can’t help but raving about it. The Knife and Deep Cuts (their previous albums) were great Indie Electropop, but what they’ve done with Silent Shout is simply awesome. They could have polished the pop hooks of those former albums even further, creating a sleek dance floor monster, but instead they made a number of choices that lifted them above the world of mediocrity and superficiality represented by most modern pop. First, following their same move from 2003, they did not to attend the Swedish Grammy Awards ceremonies in 2007 where they scooped up no less than six awards - I guess they were still protesting against male domination in the music industry. Second, they defied gravity and left the highway to mass adoration by creating Silent Shout.

Allmusic metaphorically compared Deep Cuts and Silent Shout with the “northern lights” vs. a “sunless, vast expanse of tundra”, which is spot on. Silent Shout certainly sounds more sinister, deranged and chilling yet mischievous, filling you with a yearning sense of unease. It’s not shocking, like a well-made horror movie - it rather has a floating darkness that draws you in. “This becomes already quite clear by opener and lead single, ‘Silent Shout’, which is built around a droning one-note bassline, a maddeningly random synth arpeggio blipping all over the place and a choir of nightmarish pitch-shifted voices chanting about their teeth falling out.” At the same time, Karin Dreijer’s vocals are full of trickery, creating the overall effect of “a parade of insane guest vocalists detailing their messed up lives. It’s pop gone wrong, about people gone wrong.” [Rabid in Stylus]

There are more upbeat songs (”Neverland”, “One Hit” or “Marble House”) but they too seem to be focused on creating a certain bleak, sinister atmosphere and sustaining it. But again, despite the often creepy sound, there is also an immense beauty in this music. “One Hit” is quite playful and cartoonish but it’s not exactly funny, “Neverland” has a stabbing synth-brass riff running through it, and “Marble House”, apparently inspired by the classic French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, embodies doomed romance with its gliding melody and brittle castanet rhythms. The mournful, icy synth noises that slowly expand at the beginning of “The Captain” are heartbreaking and, like in “Forest Families” and “Still Light”, have a hushed, eerie intensity. “From Off to On”, dealing with voyeurism and TV addicts, is similarly affecting, while never developing beyond tranquil, almost-whispered harmonies. 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”; on “Na Na Na” Karin sounds like an alien diva, with her whimsical, detailed lyrics having a darker cast, offering glimpses of strange people in stranger situations, while “Still Light” closes things with a low, droning harmony and a childlike voice describing a patient staring at the ceiling of a hospital..

All up, Silent Shout is much darker and at the same time more ambitious 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. It’s creative and inventive, and more striking than ever. It draws you into into a twisted little world, ornately strange and yet compelling. Right now I find myself returning to it again and again.

[see also Allmusic and Stylus Magazine]

A brother and sister duo hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, the Knife takes inspiration from vintage synth pop and forward-thinking electronic music, crafting a sound that is equally unsettling, playful, and beautiful. Olof and Karin Dreijer formed the Knife in 1999 and worked on their music in their home studios, releasing their first single, Afraid of You, in 2000 and their 2001 self-titled debut album on their own Rabid Records label. In 2003, the Knife was nominated for two Grammis, one for Best Pop Group of the Year and one for Best Pop Album for their second album, Deep Cuts. However, the Dreijers boycotted the ceremony, sending two people in gorilla costumes to protest the dominance of male acts in the music industry. They also released the Hanna Med H Soundtrack later that year. In 2004, the Knife began work on their third album in unusual locations, including a former carbon dioxide factory and the vaults of Stockholm’s Grand Church, before finishing their sessions in a more conventional studio. The following year, José González’s cover of the Deep Cuts single “Heartbeats” (which was from his 2003 album Veneer) appeared in a commercial for Sony’s Bravia and became a hit, earning more acclaim for the Dreijers outside of Sweden. Early in 2005, the Knife performed their first-ever live show at London’s ICA, appearing with Rex the Dog (who also did a remix of González’s version of “Heartbeats”) and playing in front of video created for the event by artist Andreas Nilsson. His work also appeared on How I Found the Knife, a DVD/CD set that included all of the band’s videos, short films, and remixes, which was released that summer. The Knife and Nilsson teamed up again for the video for the title track of the group’s third album, Silent Shout, which was released in early in 2006 in Sweden and that summer in the U.S. (by Mute) and U.K. (by Brille). The Knife’s darkest, most ambitious work to date, the album featured singles such as We Share Our Mother’s Health, which included a mix by Trentemøller. The duo played a handful of European, Scandinavian, and North American dates in 2006, accompanied by more of Nilsson’s visuals. That fall, Mute reissued The Knife and Deep Cuts.

[allmusic]

This video by post-rock/experimental group ‘God is an astronaut’ shows how ignorant and at the same time arrogant the human species is … pretty sad really.

Now and then I’m getting this urge to check out bozomode and there are always little treasures on there . Here is one - Andy McKee playing guitar; that should set new goals for my mate Bernard … .

It’s music from an old album from one of my favourite groups: Thom Yorke’s ‘Karma Police’ from Radiohead’s 1997 spectacular ‘OK Computer’ album, and I just came across the video which brilliantly portrays the emotionally intense message of the song. One of the great classics!

[from Allmusic: Haunting, mystifying, and exquisite, “Karma Police” was the third single from Radiohead’s 1997 masterwork OK Computer. Dense yet subtle layers of sound bolstered the acoustic guitar/piano-centered foundation of the song, culminating in a lush, swooning climax. The structure is somewhat unorthodox, since there doesn’t seem to be a true chorus section; the main verse alternates with a short, subdued break during which Thom Yorke repeats the line “this is what you get,” and after two cycles, the song builds to a completely different ending section. The melodies in the main body are a little more angular, but the finish is plaintive and soaring, without overpowering the delicate melancholy of all that preceded it. Yorke’s vocals are given a little extra echo here, and the bass begins to flex underneath as the orchestration builds; a heavily overdubbed sliding figure dominates instrumentally, providing Yorke with a dramatic counterpart. The lyrics are paranoid and inscrutable — during the verses, people are “arrested” by karma police for cryptic reasons, and a man protests that he’s given all he can, in between the “this is what you get…if you mess with us” section. The ending doesn’t make clear whether its only lyrics — “for a minute there, I lost myself” — are an expression of relief or hopelessness, but really, the emotion comes from the pure sound, not from any logical, concretely presented meanings. And that emotional intensity is evident throughout “Karma Police,” making it one of the cornerstones of one of the greatest albums of the ’90s.]