the Knife

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Too early? Let's predict.

― the Dirt (FunkDirt), Friday, 9 February 2007 12:30 (eighteen years ago)

what

― spaceball.gif (flezaffe), Friday, 9 February 2007 12:52 (eighteen years ago)

Calling Stevem...

― Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

Duddsic

― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

K-klassic

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:26 (eighteen years ago)

I can't deny them. I'm aware they're hyped/overplayed, but I haven't personally been exposed to the hype, so I hear them with my own ears, and dig it. Prefer the poppier 'Deep Cuts' to the slightly overburdened 'Silent Shout,' but both are good. Haven't heard the first--recommended?

― I.M. (I.M.), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:29 (eighteen years ago)

yes altho it's their weakest album (best tracks are probably Kino, Parade, Bird and Lasagna).

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:43 (eighteen years ago)

They're Swedish and therefore classic.

― Roz (Roz), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:47 (eighteen years ago)

"Silent Shout" takes a turn towards the colder elec-pop of, oh I dunno, Bertine Zetlitz, in my ears. The self-titled debut is warmly recommended, it's grittier (recorder partly or entirely at the Drejers' house, as far as I can remember). It's impressive how a band is able to dig up elements from the last twenty(-five?) years of popular music and mash it into something as original as the Knife, despite the range of artists having been doing similar things for a fair good time already.

― the Dirt (FunkDirt), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:55 (eighteen years ago)

They won six Swedish Grammis recently and this is how they thanked their fans (I don't understand a word of it either, but it looks great) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h85aUeGORyQ

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 9 February 2007 13:59 (eighteen years ago)

Are they really hyped/overplayed? Admittedly I don't read any of the national music press anymore or listen to daytime Radio 1, but I'd have to be seeing them on The Hits or TMF or even Popworld before I even considered them to fit either of those criteria.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:06 (eighteen years ago)

Overhyped as getting alarmingly high ratings where ever they're reviewed in that case. They're not even played that much, not in Sweden.

― strom (strom), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:11 (eighteen years ago)

the knife are ubiquitous... on ilm. i have no idea what their profile is beyond this place.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:12 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.svenskadansband.se/data/media/104/xD0044-Vikingarna.jpg http://www.vg.no/bilder/bildarkiv/1132663722.33568.jpg

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:14 (eighteen years ago)

The Knife are great btw.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:15 (eighteen years ago)

lol

manager (? or whoever that guy is): "the Knife has been an adventure, both for me and for Olof (camera man: "and Karin"). The Knife - thoughts (that) fly around, until separate notes join to form simple but otm melodies - has struck me right in the heart."

― the Dirt (FunkDirt), Friday, 9 February 2007 14:18 (eighteen years ago)

by pressing down a special key it plays o-t-melody

― friday on the porch (lfam), Friday, 9 February 2007 15:04 (eighteen years ago)

Well, I just wonder how people would perceive them if this was packaged as the Enigma & Ace of Base collaboration that it is.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:48 (eighteen years ago)

Is that a bad thing?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:50 (eighteen years ago)

yes. damn, i think salvador nailed it.

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

i don't hear the Enigma
but yeah all Swedish acts certainly do sound the same yeah

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:52 (eighteen years ago)

xxpost

Not necessarily, but their music is nothing remotely special or unusual.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)

ffs

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

compared to?

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:54 (eighteen years ago)

i would describe enigma+ace of base as totally special if not entirely unusual.

i would also say that it would sound nothing like silent shout.

― max (maxreax), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

xpost

Compared to a lot of music with that sleaziness to it---in second-rate goth bars in the 90s.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:58 (eighteen years ago)

I still haven't frothed up a journolistic explanation but to me "Silent Shout" is the "Dummy" of 2006...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it holds up just as well.

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:59 (eighteen years ago)

like what? (xpost)
and what did they play in the first-rate goth barsin the 90s?

DYIN 2 KNO

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 16:59 (eighteen years ago)

I disagree. Dummy was doing something new and unusual (though that's hard to see for some, seeing as it spawned a lot of crappy bands). It had interesting melodies, beautiful arrangements, great production, and oh those dramatic chords I love so much.

I hear generic sounds when I hear Silent Shout. It *already* sounds dated, in a bad sense.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago)

yeah maybe instead of using dated synths they should've tried sampling Isaac Hayes and John Barry for the 'new, unusual' sound.

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:03 (eighteen years ago)

vita susicivus, I don't think them being derivative of John Barry devaluates their innovation. The context in which they placed the John Barry was new and interesting. And John Barry and Isaac Hayes wasn't all there was to that album.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:04 (eighteen years ago)

Silent Shout has all of that!

Haterz in '94 would presumably have said irritating-jazz-wailing, film samples over hip-hop beats SO WHAT Massive Attack bandwagoners with no breadth (or something...)

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:05 (eighteen years ago)

considering how close Silent Shout's sonic palette is to contemporary dance producers (Tiefschwarz, Booka Shade and the like), why do they not get called 'dated' (just because they're not conforming to sung song format?) by people who thought 'Dummy' was highly innovative at the time??

― vita susicivus (blueski), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

I can't speak for everyone but I wasn't particularly enamoured of the Knife at all before this... far as I'm concerned they were "packaged" in nondescript blue sleeve and thats about it (I didn't even see the freaky videos before realising this record had me...)

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

(And btw, I'm not saying "innovation" is a requirement for music to be good. Portishead were hardly Ligeti, but I find their music beautiful. I'm saying this sounds generic and unsurprising.)

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:17 (eighteen years ago)

you don't find the drum programming on "Like a Pen" even a little bit interesting? the completely OTT vocal processing weirdly effective? the rewired square electro shapes of "One Hit" and "We Share Our Mothers' Health" a bit more outre than 90% of other (lame) electro-pop?

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:22 (eighteen years ago)

I'm not saying The Knife are Ligeti either, or even Portishead for that matter, talent wise... I just think some of their approaches - old/new production techniques juxtaposed superbly, OTT vocal campness than veers into Goth but actually manages to emerge as serious music from it, the twisted, hopeless & exhausted mood of it all. There's a LOT in common to my ears.

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:31 (eighteen years ago)

also, cult act whose initial sales/critical profile hardly reflect their stature some years on (of course this is just my intuition, it is indeed *too early* for C/D! )

― about:coffee (fandango), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

It's cool that you like it and hear parallels, fandango. I just don't. I just listened to "Like a Pen" and I'd be ok with never listening to it again. I think the harmonies and textures are horrible.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:35 (eighteen years ago)

the knife do tend to be a feast-or-famine type of band in that people will either find them unlistenable or enrapturing with not a lot of space in between - like portishead (and bjork too) before them, in fact!

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:37 (eighteen years ago)

(and like portishead and bjork, i find them enrapturing, but i would completely understand the opposite view)

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:38 (eighteen years ago)

(also eg 'hollaback girl')

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:38 (eighteen years ago)

Haha, Lex, I actually find "Hollaback Girl" to be more musically interesting than any The Knife song I've heard. The cadence of "B-A-N-A-N-A-S" is just irresistible. As is the huge beat.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:40 (eighteen years ago)

It's just a pity Gwen was the singer. But that's another story.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

;-)

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:41 (eighteen years ago)

Anyway, the Knife -- I like 'em, what I've heard! As for whether they'll be loved by the masses in later years, who cares? I like them now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

I liked "Marble House," fwiw. Sleaziest song evah.

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

(Not entirely my kind of melody, but it was strangely addictive when I first heard it.)

― Turangalila (Salvador), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:44 (eighteen years ago)

I think the first album is actually much better now than when I first got it. I haven't listened to Silent Shout in months, but I've listened to the first one a few times. I Take Time and Neon are also pretty good on that tip. I don't like Parade or Kino too much.

I think that the Knife aren't anything 'special' per se. A few of their songs are really good and contain lyrics that are, in some ways, a lot like ABBA's-- ie vague yet intense images that have some amount of weird resonance. Plus, I think that people know that they aren't some sort of amazing fantastic thing, just that they're doing the poppy pleb-house w/ crossover appeal 'thing.'

― the table is the table (treesessplode), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:53 (eighteen years ago)

Haha, Lex, I actually find "Hollaback Girl" to be more musically interesting than any The Knife song I've heard. The cadence of "B-A-N-A-N-A-S" is just irresistible. As is the huge beat.

so do i, but this is more a reflection on how much i love 'hollaback girl'!

― antidote against poisoning (lex pretend), Friday, 9 February 2007 17:54 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 733 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

when the album comes out IMO, or maybe when ppl get their review copies

― Darth Icky (DJP), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:18 (twelve years ago)

fuck it

― 乒乓, Friday, 22 March 2013 15:20 (twelve years ago)

the kniφe - shaking the habitual

― 乒乓, Friday, 22 March 2013 15:20 (twelve years ago)

omg, guardian readers will be shaken up by this strong message of dissent.

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:26 (twelve years ago)

'music history is written by privileged white men' WOAH GUYS U JUST BLEW MY MIND!!!!

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:31 (twelve years ago)

ah ffs

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:32 (twelve years ago)

i'm relieved they specified music history all the same. it'd be terrifying if they meant all history.

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:40 (twelve years ago)

Not the most original form of dissent but if it turns a few people into Knife fans then mission accomplished.

― Van Horn Street, Friday, 22 March 2013 19:43 (twelve years ago)

not really sure about all this backlash for press releases and magazine covers functioning like press releases and magazine covers

― katherine, Friday, 22 March 2013 20:42 (twelve years ago)

boys will be boys

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Friday, 22 March 2013 20:56 (twelve years ago)

From the Guardian:

It's never didactic, always poetic. But in a world where irony has superseded outrage and Carly Rae Jepsen tops critics' polls, you worry that such an explicitly political record – the inside sleeve features a satirical cartoon about extreme wealth – risks coming across as a little gauche.

"But I wonder, who are these people who think like that about music?" demands Karin. "We've done 14 or 15 interviews so far for this new album and only one of the journalists has been a woman – and that was for a feminist magazine. I think that speaks a bit for itself."

― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:07 (twelve years ago)

the inside sleeve features a satirical cartoon about extreme wealth

the sheeple will wake

― kinder, Sunday, 24 March 2013 18:17 (twelve years ago)

Oh the irony of liking pop

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:25 (twelve years ago)

I very much like their whole feminist/queer stance. Agreed, they aren't gunning for subtle stuff but whatever, I'm not cynical enough to dismiss it.

― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:33 (twelve years ago)

that cover quote is a little misleading since they weren't really trying to blow minds, since in actual context theyre just mentioning it as a known fact they kept in mind while teaching girls electronic music skills at what sounds like a pretty amazing summer camp.

― christmas candy bar (al leong), Sunday, 24 March 2013 20:37 (twelve years ago)

Isn't one of them a man?

― Tioc Norris (LocalGarda), Sunday, 24 March 2013 22:01 (twelve years ago)

who can tell these days

― nashwan, Sunday, 24 March 2013 22:42 (twelve years ago)

good thing we have brave souls in this world who'll gun down critical earnestness wherever they see it.

― a similar stunt failed to work with a cow (Merdeyeux), Monday, 25 March 2013 00:15 (twelve years ago)

surprised at how it took nearly 10 years for a band to come along and do the knife stripped of all the bjorkisms and with the pop ramped up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUvJBD9MVI4

― NI, Monday, 25 March 2013 01:02 (twelve years ago)

yeah that was some =/ editorializing but Karin basically dodged the premise so it doesn't seem to be on them

― katherine, Monday, 25 March 2013 01:24 (twelve years ago)

(plus, re the cover... of course it's out of context, it's a pull quote. context doesn't sell covers)

― katherine, Monday, 25 March 2013 01:25 (twelve years ago)

o doesn't it

http://www.jworksonline.com/images/contextmag.jpg

― zero dark (s1ocki), Monday, 25 March 2013 03:09 (twelve years ago)

four weeks pass...

http://i.minus.com/iblwKI6hTJocKC.jpg

― caek, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:50 (twelve years ago)

https://www.bengans.se/popup/honey_crazy/int.aspx?language=en

― caek, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:50 (twelve years ago)

about $38 w/ shipping = a bit too steep for me. curious though.

― I have many lovely lacy nightgowns (contenderizer), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:16 (twelve years ago)

haha good stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvRGLLBkn20

― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:25 (twelve years ago)

for some reason i had never listened to their first album before and hey this is good. it seems a bit written out of their usual narrative.

― the kind of man who best draws girls' eyeballs (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 13:41 (twelve years ago)

yeah, I only bought the new album just now. Don't know why it's been so dismissed and "forgotten". I love it.

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 14:09 (twelve years ago)

This isn't the Knife. It's Karin's old band Honey Is Cool, which also featured Håkan Hellström, who is very famous in Sweden.

― Eyeball Kicks, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 14:22 (twelve years ago)

ya sorry I just happened to be listening to the first Knife album when I saw this thread and I leaped in against the grain of the conversation. But this Honey is Cool song is fun too!

― the kind of man who best draws girls' eyeballs (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 14:30 (twelve years ago)

the first Knife album rivals Silent Shout and towers over Deep Cuts IMO; 9 times out of 10 I pick it as my favorite

― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Tuesday, 23 April 2013 14:33 (twelve years ago)

I meant to say I only bought the OLD album now. I don't think it towers over deep cuts, but its good

― dan selzer, Tuesday, 23 April 2013 16:34 (twelve years ago)

"ready to lose" is what i was hoping the kember/mgmt album would sound like

― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 5 May 2013 11:49 (twelve years ago)

two months pass...

http://www.wimp.com/swedenpolice/

― Fetchboy, Thursday, 25 July 2013 23:15 (twelve years ago)

http://theknife.net/2013/07/the-warehouse-project-manchester/

they're curating a Shaking the Habitual Show evening in Manchester in October, tickets on sale at 9 tomorrow. Very little info on what exactly that means, but I may give it a go, I definitely haven't spent enough time refreshing websites and failing to get tickets to see The Knife this year.

― Fanois och Alexander (Merdeyeux), Thursday, 25 July 2013 23:57 (twelve years ago)

now i am listening to shaking the habitual again

― markers, Thursday, 25 July 2013 23:57 (twelve years ago)

well, it's advertised as 'the knife' + special guests 'shaking the habitual show' so hopefully a proper show with other djs padding it out, an olof set would be interesting but who knows? tickets booked anyway. p excited, didn't expect i'd get to see them this year.

― ewar woowar (or something), Friday, 26 July 2013 08:29 (twelve years ago)

interesting how the knife made such a big deal out of gender equality when putting their tour together and then play at the warehouse project with its 1% female line-up

― lex pretend, Friday, 26 July 2013 09:46 (twelve years ago)

I'm not 100% sure bands are even given much information about the rest of the bill when they're booked. They could have pulled out, I suppose, but I'm not sure lowering the female quotient even further would exactly have improved things.

― Matt DC, Friday, 26 July 2013 10:56 (twelve years ago)

otm but 1% female line-up? really? really?

― flamboyant goon tie included, Friday, 26 July 2013 11:23 (twelve years ago)

oh well i slept in and missed tickets, good work me.

― Fanois och Alexander (Merdeyeux), Friday, 26 July 2013 12:31 (twelve years ago)

oh wait no i didn't, the transparent drop-down menus confused me. now i have a ticket, good work me.

― Fanois och Alexander (Merdeyeux), Friday, 26 July 2013 12:36 (twelve years ago)

one month passes...

i got what appears to be a legit email from ticketarena with a message from the knife saying their autumn shows are cancelled (the whp one offers exchange to the moderat or flying lotus shows or a refund) but it went in my junk mail and i can't see anything on the whp site or twitter or anywhere else when i google. anyone have any more info if this is true?

― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 23 September 2013 17:08 (twelve years ago)

nm i rang the whp direct, confirmed off ;_;

― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 23 September 2013 17:22 (twelve years ago)

;_;

I email went in my junk too and I probably wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't posted.

― oppet, Monday, 23 September 2013 17:24 (twelve years ago)

yeah this is quite the bummer. they better come back next year TWICE as alienating!

― opie dead eyed piece of shit (Merdeyeux), Monday, 23 September 2013 17:48 (twelve years ago)

tbh this could have been worse timing as since booking tickets i've found i'm having to relocate from liverpool to glasgow mid-october and what with finding a new job and settling in a trip back down to manchester on the 25th would've been a bit of a ballache. oh well, life goes on.

― ewar woowar (or something), Monday, 23 September 2013 18:16 (twelve years ago)

four months pass...

for someone with no other vocal credits that I can find, Lærke Winther does a pretty awesome job on Height of Summer

― cristalnacht (lukas), Tuesday, 11 February 2014 05:17 (eleven years ago)

two months pass...

I loved the show.

also:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/05/karin_of_the_kn.html

― dan selzer, Friday, 2 May 2014 17:41 (eleven years ago)

meant to post in other thread

― dan selzer, Friday, 2 May 2014 17:41 (eleven years ago)

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the Knife - C/D