Rolling Like The Knife

One of the most fertile genre threads (for me) during the winter 2011 ILM sandbox was one where we shared our discoveries in The Knife/Fever Ray vein of dark femme vox electronica. Austra, Battlekat, Emika, Gazelle Twin, iamamiwhoami, Niki & the Dove, Zeigeist would all fit nicely, and one could probably shoehorn in some Grimes, Gudrun Gut, New Look, Purity Ring, Soft Metals, and We Love, et al.

In the absence of a rolling thread on the ILM mothership, we missed some excellent tips that would otherwise have certainly featured in my musical 2012. Hence a new rolling thread.

First up, the Norwegian Karin Park, who has a striking vocal resemblance to that other Karin, with dubsteppy orchestrations that would fit on Emika's debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGvrWWp3294

Karin Park was barely mentioned here last year (only a cover on the noteworthy album covers thread).

Aha, there's the link: Christoffer Berg did production on Fever Ray, Planningtorock's W, and Karin Park's Highwire Poetry.

the only fake knife you really need is this record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF9fWvI0J5U

I think Sandra Kolstad goes here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh13mu98aCE

The previous post is We Love, right.

I intended the We Love thing to be a question.

I'd also include parts of last year's Susanne Sundfør album here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCIaj-oLi28

I might need to relisten, but I know that I had Sundfør, Kolstad, and Karin Park all grouped together in my head with Niki and the Dove, iamamiwhoami, etc. as stuff to listen to now that I have more than overplayed the Fever Ray album.

new Gazelle Twin EP is awesome. extra points for the Wire cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FElMN5zH-7I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyB61XiggvM

Twigs - Ache. Reminds me of Fever Ray.

Nice suggestion. I'm also hearing Nneka's "Heartbeat" in the outro to that track. Note there are a number of Twigs out there.

By the way, I regretted the thread title almost immediately. Rolling thread for ...
"Nordic sounding femme synth-pseudo-pop"?
"post-Bjork/post-The Knife experimental pop"?
"electronic art pop"?
There seems to be enough artists in this vein in recent years that it merits a useful handle, and I'm not really aware of any I'm happy with.

Every time I see this thread, I expect a mash up of Adele and " We Share Our Mother's Health"

Their first record came out last year, but I only discovered it recently, and I thought you folks might enjoy it... Tiiu Helinä is a local sister/brother duo, I guess their music could be described as dub technoish synth pop with some Finnish folk music elements:

https://soundcloud.com/tiiuhelina/susi

http://open.spotify.com/album/7EWBKDf5u5zKXzweRvw7cr

Their tunes are a bit samey, but the sound is really unique, I don't think I've ever heard anything quite like it. (But if some of you can name similar artists, I'd definitely want to hear some recommendations!)

do people like sexwitch, because I do

that was a sick sandbox thread btw, would welcome a branwell's perspective on the sexwitch question

What is the sexwich question. Unless it involves Florian and Ralf and me inbetween I'm not sure I can help you here.

I think the reason the Sandbox thread worked so well was because I was quite specific about what I was after. As soon as it became a generic "dark electronica with ladyvox" it kind of stopped working.

I'm not arrogant enough to do a general "Stuff Branwell Is Digging" thread but if I did I'd tell you all about the new Lianne Las Havas and my complicated feelings about the amazing new Gwenno record and how it's a crime that no one cares about the last Little Boots album?

sexwitch = bat for lashes side project. I'm not really into bfl but I like it a lot. Might be really off-base with the knifealike thing also. It maybe sounds like the 1st glasser album a bit? It's on spotify. They cover non-anglophone psych.

It sounds rubbish but I think it isn't

The name is beyond terrible but I'll give it a go on Monday.

yeah not gonna defend the name, a 2nd band meeting might have been in order

I like this la havas! "associated acts: paloma faith" would have me backing away but "green & gold" won me over

sexwitch is kind of trancey electronic psych stuff with a strong middle eastern influence (some of the songs are versions of moroccan folk tunes, another one is a skip spence cover). have seen folks dismissing it as a 93-ish crusty ethno rave throwback thing, but hey i'm into it

maybe it's like a dancier version of goat?

a 93-ish crusty ethno rave throwback thing, but hey i'm into it

Oh god I have such an embarrassing weakness for that sort of thing. I own some truly dreadful records just for Natacha Atlas guest spots. Will definitely give it a go.

The word megadog was uttered

It's a bit more rock that that though imo

i guess GEoRGiA belongs in this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bx-aOiOex8

I'm enjoying this, erm, Sexwitch nonsense, with the same part of my brain that digs crazy 70s psych-prog records, and reissues on the Finders Keepers label but this has absolutely nothing in the world to do with The Knife or the loose genre of music that we tried to make coalesce around that thread? Like this has a ton in common with Amon Duul II, but I'm struggling to think of a universe in which this is in any way, shape or form *electronic*?

It's OK, but I feel very very missold.

it's the beats on the first side that are the main link

last 3 tracks are straight-up ye olde psych rock though

have you listened to the Abra album Branwell? it is basically an r'n'b album, but i'm going to use the gazelle twin-ish production as an excuse to shoehorn it into this thread cos it needs more love (sorry for diluting the brand)

the telepathe album is rather more on point, but though i got terribly excited about it on my first couple of listens, turns out it's possibly not all that. however the last three tracks still stand up and are guaranteed bangers imo

my god my english is mangled this morning

Thread on the verge of turning into a non-parodic version of Spotify Hipster Boyfriend...

i'm sorry :(

hey check out this band joy division

...they're really obscure, do you know, I have never, ever heard of them?

The Georgia record is OK so far, and does actually meet the original thread remit.

Was there ever any discussion of that Gwenno record on ILM?

I am sad that Sexwitch only exists on vinyl and download and not CD.

a 93-ish crusty ethno rave throwback thing, but hey i'm into it

The word megadog was uttered

this isn't the right thread for it (not for what I want from it, anyway - haven't checked out Sexwitch but I'll do so ASAP) but I am totally up for a Megadog/Planet Dog/drippy 90s cosmic-rainforest vibe revival fyi

listening to Timeshard, wondering what happened to my authentic 90s cosmic rainforest vibe t-shirts, hoping to spot a more apposite thread in SNA some day soon

There's some talk of the Gwenno on this Pipettes thread. It's one of my favourite records of the year.

LOL I listened to Time Shard on Spotify and Spotify Hipster Boyfriend suggested I listen to Shpongle. YES. Yes I will. Bring it on.

Yeah, I'm.... hmmm. I think it would be better if I didn't go on Pipettes threads; that's just not going to happen.

oh i'll second abra, one of my albums of the year and i think you'd like it branwell, albeit def not in the remit of this thread really

Everytime I've seen this thread pop up for nearly two years I've regretted my state of inebriation while typing the new Q's title.

Mods, I beseech you to retitle as per the sandbox thread: thread in which we talk about kinda arty kinda electronic stuff which gets compared to The Knife type stuff.

I like the current title, it makes me think of 'Hungry Like The Wolf'

xp: Shpongle is pretty great, but note its lineage is crusty Goa trance, rather than icy Scandanavian mountain streams.

Schpongle is naught like thread topic at all; but that's just what I was *expecting* when what I got was... Sexwich.

this karin park/maya jane cole track:

http://youtu.be/4OvpiEilNbs

The latest Karin Park is quite nice, apart from the one song that sounds like Bastille.