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The Knife - Deep Cuts
- The Knife is a band that arrives with the new waves of electro pop which is growing in popularity. Much like the trip-hop of the early 2000s (Portishead, Morcheeba), this is electronic music that features a female vocalist. They differ from those other trip-hop bands in that these tracks lack a distinct hip-hop influence. There is definitely some hip-hop here, it is inescapable, but it is a faint influence. This music seems more like straightforward techno considering the fact that all songs are in a 4/4 time signature at different tempos. Many of the songs sound kind of like generic techno songs. It becomes poppy in that, unlike techno, these songs have chorus’s and song structures that change for different parts of the song. Much like Fischerspooner, the style of techno portrayed here is rather stripped down, containing only about four or five layers of synth at the most. A lot of the sonic work is done by the vocalist.
On that note, whereas those other bands had placed a skill on talented singers, The Knifes lead singer is not an objectively great singer. She makes up for this by knowing how to use her voice. We can hear how comfortable she is with her voice, and how she uses that voice to direct the music. Depending on how she is singing, the music can be light and poppy, or dark, even creepy, as on the bizarre and frightening, “The Cop.” Also, unlike many, many other techno pop bands, there seems to be more of an emphasis on the songwriting itself. For example, “Pass This On” tells the story of a young girl in love with her friend's brother, asking her friend to “pass on” her feelings. This is a good band to drive to, or just listen to. My hope is that they can branch out an experiment with their brand of techno and make it their own.
Reviewer: Josh Brachfeld
new
Reviewer's Rating: 8
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 22-Jun-2009
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