March 10, 2010

Music Review: The Knife – Tomorrow, In A Year


When faced with a new work by Swedish Electro-Pop artist The Knife you would expect it to be strange, even want it to be. But with "Tomorrow, In A Year", the brother/sister team of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer bring the listener so far past the boundaries of “strangeness,” that all reference points become useless, like trail markers buried under snow. Known for their atmospheric and eccentric songs, with this album, the duo eschews the pop entirely for a ninety-minute electronic opera and a concept album based on Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species".

As strange as it may sound, the weirdness is perhaps not wholly surprising from a band who on their debut album had a song with the lyrics "making lasagna... above the clouds" and given that Andersson recently attended a Swedish award ceremony draped in a red veil to reveal a rubber alien mask and accepted the award, for her Fever Ray album, with barely audible raspy grunts in place of words.

Commissioned by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma to create music for the opera they had written about Darwin, it began life as a soundtrack to a live performance before it took root as an album. The record was made in collaboration with Berlin based bands Planningtorock and Mt. Sims and features mezzo-soprano (medium soprano) Kristina Wahlin Momme on operatic vocal duties. As Olof Dreijer says: “At first it was very difficult as we really didn’t know anything about opera. We’d never been to one. But after some studying, and just getting used to opera’s essence of pretentious and dramatic gestures, I found that there is a lot to learn and play with.” If it took Dreijer that long to appreciate it, it will take the audience maybe longer, especially when juxtaposed with the overloaded bass, glitchy distortion and nature samples.

Charles Darwin traveled to The Galápagos Islands, an archipelago of volcanic islands off the coast of what is now Ecuador, to research and write his famous work but The Knife chose the relatively nearby Amazon to record bird and insect sounds for this particular opus. The track "Colouring Of Pigeons" comes close to resembling a familiar sound but even in this, one of the more accessible tracks on the album, the opera and bass drone throw things sumptuously off-centre.

An ambitious, courageous album – opera fans won’t love it due to the distortion and most likely the average electronic music fan won’t love it due to the heavy presence of opera. It's obtuse, unwieldy, intense and astonishing. It is also one of the albums of the year and perhaps of the new decade but it will be one of those albums whose time hasn’t come quite yet. It will be talked about, half-forgotten, then dug up and lauded, probably once The Knife are in retirement; the familiar curse of visionary artists the world over.

With little of their trademark sweeteners - handclaps, pulsating dance beats or disco hi-hat – to balance the brooding darkness, this long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s Silent Shout, like Darwin's book, will be received with a certain measure of indignation and disbelief. The Knife is passionate about the evolution of its music: Let this album sink slowly into your skin and the rewards will be rich. Just don’t listen to it alone; “Tomorrow, In A Year” is as terrifying as it is unique.

Music Review: The Knife – Tomorrow, In A Year [Short]



When faced with a new work by Swedish Electro-Pop artist The Knife you would expect it to be strange, even want it to be. But with "Tomorrow, In A Year", the brother/sister team of Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer bring the listener so far past the boundaries of “strangeness,” that all reference points become useless, like trail markers buried under snow. Known for their atmospheric and eccentric songs, with this album, the duo eschews the pop entirely for a ninety-minute electronic opera and a concept album based on Charles Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species". With little of their trademark sweeteners - hand claps, pulsating dance beats or disco hi-hat – to balance the brooding darkness, this long-awaited follow-up to 2006’s Silent Shout, like Darwin's book, will be received with a certain measure of indignation and disbelief. But The Knife is passionate about the evolution of its music: Let this album sink slowly into your skin and the rewards will be rich. Just don’t listen to it alone; “Tomorrow, In A Year” is as terrifying as it is unique.

March 5, 2010

Music Review: These New Puritans – Hidden [short]



Towards the end of last year young British post-punk band These New Puritans put out a stunning video for their digital single "We Want War", which garnered them a lot of attention. Hidden – being their sophomore album - has been hotly anticipated ever since. These New Puritans, often abbreviated to TNPS, are a rag-tag 4-piece from Southend-On-Sea, a decaying seaside town not far from London, England. Echoing the experimentation of artists such as Björk and Scott Walker, Hidden blends Foley samples, taiko drums, oboes and a children’s choir into their unique brand of post-punk. The album manages to blend the angular guitar stylings of Liars and Gang of Four with the urban dance of MIA and the experimentation of the aforementioned Icelandic diva. The end result is a fascinating collection of brooding, percussive and melodic songs – danceable and cerebral. Without doubt one of the most compelling albums of the year so far.
(Angular/Domino)

Music Review: These New Puritans – Hidden


If you think back to just over a decade ago, despite the common claim of disbelief in religious or superstitious apocalypse, there was a palpable sense of dread over the coming of the new millennium. The media called it pre-millennial tension, and in addition to hysteria over a mostly-fabricated Millennium Bug due to break all known computer systems, there was also a glut of tense, no-future art – Tricky, Mike Leigh’s Naked and Ministry to name just a few. And when Y2K finally rolled around the sun didn’t explode, God didn’t appear with a plague of locusts and artists chilled out considerably, reverting to happier or at least more directly personal art. Well, not These New Puritans who - like Thom Yorke - are saddled with the burden of Post-Millennial tension. The only complication for this particular band is that they aren't entirely sure which Millennium they are feeling tense about.

Towards the end of 2009 young British post-punk band These New Puritans, often abbreviated to TNPS, put out a sensual, eye-catching video for their digital single "We Want War", directed by Australian film-maker Daniel Askill. The song that accompanied the video is a 7 minute long orchestral song that opens with expansive taiko drums, pitch-shifted speech and horns; the resulting sound is simultaneously like something from the near future and also positively medieval. The video garnered them a lot of attention and Hidden – their sophomore album - has been hotly anticipated ever since.

TNPS are a ragtag four-piece hailing from Southend-On-Sea, a decaying seaside town not far along the Thames from London. Echoing the experimentation of artists such as Björk and Scott Walker, they blend Foley samples, taiko drums, oboes and a children’s choir into their unique brand of Art rock. The end result is a fascinating collection of brooding, percussive and melodic songs - danceable and cerebral. The album manages to blend the angular guitar stylings of Liars and Gang of Four with the urban dance of MIA and the vocal experimentation of the aforementioned Icelandic Diva. Hidden has a cinematic, militaristic feel but it doesn’t summon images of modern warfare and conflict. With its rattling chains, drum-heavy sound, choirs and clashing swords it evokes something much more medieval and primitive.

The end result is a post-apocalyptic dystopia worthy of Russell Hoban (author of Riddley Walker, and according to front man Jack Barnett an influence on the album, along with British wartime composer Benjamin Britten). The most delicate track, "Hologram" begins as a moment of Vespertine-esque beauty with the lyrics “Shut the door, shut the door; Because I’m staying here; The world might disappear under blankets of snow”. It could be a lover talking to his other or a missive from the bed of a depressive’s bunker in a world destroyed by war and climate change. The following track, "Attack Music" breaks in with the sounds of epic battle drums, clashing swords, breaking glass and sinister oboes. Another track, "White Chords" appears to be at least in a small way a nod to Thom Yorke’s Black Swan.

Self-conscious, and at times pretentious, the album is a heavily compelling and successful elaboration on their debut release, Beat Pyramid. In a music scene that is overwhelmingly re-discovering the lo-fi, fey aesthetic of bands such as the Modern Lovers and ironic revivals of eighties synth-pop that the authors aren’t old enough to remember, the cinematic, expansive, unabashedly literate sound of Hidden is a welcome break from the norm. Without doubt one of the most ambitious, obtuse and exhilarating albums of the year.