The Knife
Issue #29
Silent Shout (Mute)
By John Everhart
Published: September 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
From the sensitive-troubadour songcrafts of Jens Lekman and Jose Gonzalez, to the heavy-handed psychedelica of Dungen and the saccharine pop of Love is All, a litany of excellent acts have emerged from Sweden of late. Stockholm’s the Knife is the latest to see a high-profile stateside release. The brother-sister duo raises the stakes with their tantalizingly icy electro-pop that evokes modern purveyors of the genre like Adult. and Ladytron, with a dollop of the detached anomie of Radiohead’s Amnesiac thrown in for good measure. Much like Radiohead, they grapple with the collision of technology and humanity, addressing the conundrum as adeptly and creepily as a David Cronenberg film.
Tracks like the trash-disco, beat-driven “Neverland” and the skittish, glitch number “We Share Our Mothers’ Health” are guided by the gritty, digitally treated vocals of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer. Swapped and blended haphazardly, they lend the record an unsettling discordance, like a dyspeptic electro version of Sonic Youth’s Sister. The extended synth intro of “The Captain” is placid enough to soundtrack Mars Rover footage, until the sullen vocals of Andersson kick in as the track glacially metamorphoses into a slinky dance-pop groove. The churning, blunt blues stomp of “One Hit” is a standout, with Dreijer’s stark caterwaul undercutting the song’s mechanical beat, like Tom Waits crashing Autechre’s party.
Strip away the sheen and atmospherics and at Silent Shout’s core is a collection of exquisitely written, deeply resonating pop songs. As Kraftwerk once famously told Lester Bangs in defending their reputation as lacking emotion, “It is emotion. It’s cold emotion.” Silent Shout emits a frigid, powerful gust.
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