A limited edition release from the forthcoming album.
Swedish-based, brother and sister duo Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson are The Knife (there's another one with "The" in the title...pesky kids) and release 'Silent Shout' a month ahead of the same-titled album (release date March 27th). I'd never heard of them before as you'd quite rightly expect from someone who listened to 'Run To You' by Bryan Adams this morning and still thought it was a great song, but as I'm always up for a beer and a challenge (or a Coke and a smile if you prefer), I thought I'd give it a go.
Fusing Depeche Mode, Massive Attack, Kraftwerk and New Order might not be to everyone's taste but it's a heady concoction that works fantastically well for The Knife. The lush, indulgent production of 'Silent Shout' is as bass-heavy as you'd expect, vocals are kept to an illusory minimum and there's a killer electroclash hook - though this track is as smooth as a buttered seal in an oil slick and as enigmatic, aloof and impenetrable as Stanley Kubrick on a good day.
If you like your electronic pop minimalist in execution, daring in intent and maybe even a little bit sinister, then 'Silent Shout' is required listening. Yes, you may have heard stuff similar of late but who cares? A great track is a great track...and this is a great track (how lazy is THAT sentence? Come on, it is Friday after all).
Robert Moog would be proud of The Knife - even if technological advances mean that the use of his actual instruments is on the wane. However, (thankfully) the keyboard spirit is alive and kicking in bands like The Knife, Zoot Woman (where the hell is that second album Price?) and The Modern.
Catch up with the razor sharp couple in London sometime in April, where you can be sure to dance like a robot from 1984 and not look stupid...