Pitchfork's Best New Music: The Knife - Silent Shout

Today Pitchfork gave the third record Silent Shout from Swedish electronic duo/siblings The Knife an 8.6 and placed the album in its coveted 'Best New Music' section. There are all the usual suspects of electronic music present here: synths, samplers, beeps, buzzes, and computers. So far, what makes this band sound refreshing are the vocals. While relying heavily on vocal effects is nothing new in electronic music, Karin Dreijer Andersson's vocal stylings are often so produced/manipulated they sound almost otherworldly.

P'Fork's Mark Pytlik referenced Kid A in his review when describing the widespread difficulty electronic musicians have with marrying electronic textures and vocals effectively: "only a handful of electronic full-lengths have navigated the vocal/textural divide as inventively as and refreshingly as Kid A. The latest is Silent Shout."

I have no problem admitting I am a complete idiot when it comes to electronic music. But, read the Pitchfork review--Pytlik does a great job of conveying the dark and forbidding feel of the album and the impressiveness of the vocals. He even offers up the new (to my knowledge) and quite apt term "haunted house" to describe the album. This type of music usually only holds my attention for 10-15 minutes tops and I have made it through the entire album on my initial listen. I would venture to say that anyone not completely thrown by the knee-jerk genre shock will find something they enjoy on this record.

Read Pitchfork's Review of the Album Here.


Online music retailer Amp Camp has this neat (albeit only marginally helpful) little "Degree of Difficulty" calculator for every album available on their site. Here is their breakdown of Silent Shout:

Vocal Idiosyncracy: 3.0
(1=Bing Crosby, 5=Gwar)

Unconventional Song Structue: 2.5
(1=Ramones, 5=Os Mutantes)

Unusual Instrumentation 2.0
(1=Buddy Holly, 5=the Polyphonic Spree)

Parental Approval: 3.2
(1=U2, 5=Twisted Sister)

Art School Factor: 3.0
(1=Limp Biscuit, 5=Velvet Underground)

Attention Required : 2.4
(1=Billy Ocean, 5=John Cage)

Hard to Dance to: 1.6
(1=Bananarama, 5=Elliott Smith)

OVERALL: 2.5



Tunes:

The Knife - "We Share Our Mother's Health" *recommended*

The Knife - "Silent Shout"

The Knife - "Neverland"

The Knife - "Forest Families"


Pre-Order the Album Here.


*Bonus: Here is perhaps the group's most well known and poppy tune, "Heartbeats", which many of you will recognize from Jose Gonzalez' excellent cover.

The Knife - "Heartbeats"

Jose Gonzalez - "Heartbeats"



Posted by: Matt