As far as I know there is no new material due from The Knife any time soon. But fear not, because their glacially voiced Bjork-alike Karin Dreijer is releasing a full album under the moniker 'Fever Ray'. The first MP3 from her forthcoming record is a curious and tasty nibble (particularly to people with really snazzy headphones-it is deeply rich at the low end). She sings a vocal melody over the unnerving thrum of a demonic piece of machinery doomed to be forever starting up like a supernatural lawnmower from hell and about to run out of Castrol GTX. The track is imbued with an unapologetic minimalism and a vibe of being beamed out of a club full of decaying, emotionless aesthetes more interested in their own flaking beauty than emotions or the world around them. Sound familiar? Yup. it's the Velvet Underground and Nico version 2.0. Need any more convincing? The song is called 'if I had a heart'. Well, it sure doesn't sound like it Karin.
MP3:Fever Ray-If I had a heart
Lots of people copy the Velvet Underground's sound. At least here we have an artist identifying with the band's spirit rather than their sound which dates back to the sixties. I hope Fever Ray's album lives up to the promise of this track. Because it is a bit mysterious and a bit thrilling, and quite unlike recent efforts by Primal Scream, The Verve, Spiritualized or any other past-it, ageing panto group who have deludedly attempted to take up the Velvet Underground's considerable mantel.
1/4/09
Wot the knife did next
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The Knife are definitely one of the more important and interesting bands of this decade. I reckon that people have an idea of this rather than knowing it outright. I read a review of Silent Shout in some paper/magazine of importance (please let me know in comments if you remember where) that gave that album a score of one out of ten, before saying it was probably the most pretentious and offensive shit the reviewer had ever heard. I think I remember an album or single by that collective excretion of Scot-flavoured Libertines effluent known as the Fratellis scoring quite high on the same page. Naturally, I checked the Knife's album out and sure enough it was fantastic. This led me to the perverse yet demonstratable conclusion that bonkers one star reviews are far more indicative of an album's qualities (or at least existence) than an entire army of seven or eight out of tens. With a one star, you can be sure that an album has ruffled some fucker's feathers and it almost definitely has more to do with the reviewer's personal taste than it's musical merit.
As far as I know there is no new material due from The Knife any time soon. But fear not, because their glacially voiced Bjork-alike Karin Dreijer is releasing a full album under the moniker 'Fever Ray'. The first MP3 from her forthcoming record is a curious and tasty nibble (particularly to people with really snazzy headphones-it is deeply rich at the low end). She sings a vocal melody over the unnerving thrum of a demonic piece of machinery doomed to be forever starting up like a supernatural lawnmower from hell and about to run out of Castrol GTX. The track is imbued with an unapologetic minimalism and a vibe of being beamed out of a club full of decaying, emotionless aesthetes more interested in their own flaking beauty than emotions or the world around them. Sound familiar? Yup. it's the Velvet Underground and Nico version 2.0. Need any more convincing? The song is called 'if I had a heart'. Well, it sure doesn't sound like it Karin.
MP3:Fever Ray-If I had a heart
Lots of people copy the Velvet Underground's sound. At least here we have an artist identifying with the band's spirit rather than their sound which dates back to the sixties. I hope Fever Ray's album lives up to the promise of this track. Because it is a bit mysterious and a bit thrilling, and quite unlike recent efforts by Primal Scream, The Verve, Spiritualized or any other past-it, ageing panto group who have deludedly attempted to take up the Velvet Underground's considerable mantel.
As far as I know there is no new material due from The Knife any time soon. But fear not, because their glacially voiced Bjork-alike Karin Dreijer is releasing a full album under the moniker 'Fever Ray'. The first MP3 from her forthcoming record is a curious and tasty nibble (particularly to people with really snazzy headphones-it is deeply rich at the low end). She sings a vocal melody over the unnerving thrum of a demonic piece of machinery doomed to be forever starting up like a supernatural lawnmower from hell and about to run out of Castrol GTX. The track is imbued with an unapologetic minimalism and a vibe of being beamed out of a club full of decaying, emotionless aesthetes more interested in their own flaking beauty than emotions or the world around them. Sound familiar? Yup. it's the Velvet Underground and Nico version 2.0. Need any more convincing? The song is called 'if I had a heart'. Well, it sure doesn't sound like it Karin.
MP3:Fever Ray-If I had a heart
Lots of people copy the Velvet Underground's sound. At least here we have an artist identifying with the band's spirit rather than their sound which dates back to the sixties. I hope Fever Ray's album lives up to the promise of this track. Because it is a bit mysterious and a bit thrilling, and quite unlike recent efforts by Primal Scream, The Verve, Spiritualized or any other past-it, ageing panto group who have deludedly attempted to take up the Velvet Underground's considerable mantel.
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9 comments:
Q Magazine
Kudos for highlighting the new track. The Knife are heroes of mine and Silent Shout is one of the best albums ever made. They're cold and emotional, distant and claustrophobic, intelligent, visionary, strange and intense (and not just as musicians). Nobody can do what they do. What they have become is infintely bleak and represents, for me, the highest and most beautiful thing there is. There is absolutely no way the Fever Ray album won't be one of the best albums of the year. It's an impossibility.
p.s. Q Magazine is made my dickheads for dickheads. May they rot.
Get off the fence ape
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RYpA2amm-SI
You reminded me of this absolute gem of a remix.
LoLo - You ever heard his one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3njX4nSO5U
Hey thanks for reminding me Ronan
Ape-so you're a fan then? Passionate stuff :)
Lolo and Ronan I couldn't access either of those two remixes for some reason.
these assertions that nico didn't have a heart... very controversial... unfortunately it seems we can no longer generalise about the german character, no matter how much we might want to.
i have to say, i don't think much of the track. it's a lot like those lesser interludes in between the great songs on Silent Shout. i mean, if she's going to do a project that isn't the knife, but sounds like it might very well be the knife, why bother?
don't get me wrong now, i'm obsessed with Dreijer. if i'd had the opportunity to review 'Silent Shout' i would have just submitted a photo of myself weeping in the foetal position really.
Oh I wouldn't be one to make assertions about the german charater Niamh, but from my reading of pop and rock history I'm tempted to about Nico. Many people close to her, looking back, seem to think there was a sociopathic blankness there. That's why the song I'll be your mirror is so fascinating.
you know, i have this approach to my favourite music now that doesn't involve reading up about the musician whatsoever, because it sort of ruins it. so many examples i could use!
i think ending up falling off yer bike in ibiza is enough to earn my sympathy though. poor old nico.
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