Kat Says: “YOOOO, IS THIS A NEW SONG FROM THE KNIFE?!”
Here’s to hoping, and here are a few new tunes for your earhole, cool stories and more news.
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Hey Friends,
Did you hear the good news? Fever Ray is back, and even cooler than that, the latest single is a collaboration between Karin and their brother Olof, which marks the first time the Dreijer siblings have released an original collaboration since 2014!
If all of those words were gibberish to you, here’s some background:
The Knife is for sure, 100 percent one of my favorite bands ever. Musically, the project is both haunting and absurd, serving a strange sort of goth-electro surrealism that fit perfectly in the late-aught miasma of my favorite songs.
When I think of the bloghouse era, I have to think about playing The Knife’s 2006 masterpiece Silent Shout, which then sent me on a mission to listen to everything The Knife ever produced.
Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden, The Knife was formed in 1999 but found global acclaim in the mid 2000s, following the success of sophomore LP Deep Cuts and a runaway-hit cover of that album’s intro tune, “Heartbeats,” by José González.
The fellow Swedes’ version is very indie-folky, like the rest of his catalog, but I was blown the fuck away by The Knife’s wildly different sound—a sound where Karin’s voice shrilled like a wayward bat over warbled synthscapes seemingly ripped from the Gimm-like anti-fantasies of my troubled bookworm childhood.
The Knife was composed of brother and sister Karin and Olof Dreijer. Well, maybe brother and sister aren’t the right terms, because Karin has since come out as non-binary, claiming the pronouns they/them in English.
This is not super surprising. Karin has always been an androgynous mastermind. Honestly, to say “androgynous” is almost unfair. Karin transcends gender, mostly because they can’t really be looked at or seen at all, but for other reasons, too.
In The Knife, the Dreijers famously never showed their faces, often appearing in beaked Venetian-style masquerade masks or creepy, monkey-like face coverings.
“We like to put focus on our music as much as possible,” Karin says in an interview with The Netherland’s FaceCulture in 2006. “We never appear with our own faces anywhere, so we try to dress out as the music; so this is how we think it looks like.”
The humanless-ness of Karin’s brilliance is bolstered by the artist’s genius use of vocoder.
Without a doubt, the backbone of The Knife’s preternatural sound is Karin’s voice. In its natural tone, it’s icy cold and brittle but somehow strong, the way a witch’s gnarled finger can be thin but poke your eye out. It crawls up and down your nervous system until you're just seriously unsettled, and I can not get enough.
On top of that, Karin is constantly tweaking it; pitching it up and down to become this booming manly thing, or a twittering, flit-about baby voice that flies around your head and gets stuck in your hair. The voice is layered on top of itself in discordant harmonics and whispers. Plus, the lyricism is wicked and the visuals are delightfully unhinged.
Everything about The Knife is perfectly imperfect, which is the best kind of perfect music can be, in my humble and professional opinion. The Knife knows all the rules, and so The Knife breaks them all with gusto.
I never got to see The Knife live, but I did buy this Russian DVD of the band performing in its hometown in 2006. I bought it on the internet, obviously, and it was completely unplayable on my U.S. DVD player, so I had to watch it on my then-boyfriend’s laptop. Thankfully, the concert film is now on YouTube. It’s so, so good.
The Knife only ever went on a couple tours, because the band never performed until 2005 when it debuted at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, which is insane. After releasing 2013’s Shaking The Habitual, The Knife officially disbanded—OR DID IT?!
I’m looking all over the internet, and I can’t find any real evidence that The Knife ever officially broke up. People just kind of assume it did, because the band said its Shaking The Habitual tour would be its final live shows, but like, do they even like being on stage? They barely performed in the first place. No performance doesn’t mean no band.
In the interim, the Dreijers have done a bit of solo work. Most notably, Karin has released albums under the moniker Fever Ray, and their just as wildly poetic and deranged and performance-artist-y as ever.
One of my favorite all-time moments in music history is when Karin accepts the award for Best Dance Artist at the P3 Gold ceremonies in Norway, which I guess is like the Norwegian Grammys or whatever. Karin takes the stage in an all-red get-up, then lifts a weird veil to reveal a melted face, all the better from which to mumble a horrifying death gasp in graciousness.
It’s capital B Bizarre, and it marks what I think to be the only time any Dreijer actually accepted an award in the physical.
Fever Ray is as critically-acclaimed as The Knife ever was, maybe even more beloved or at least more widely reviewed and publicized. It’s track “if I Had Heart” featured in Breaking Bad, and its most recent album, 2018’s Plunge, won the Swedish Grammy for Producer of the Year.
Fever Ray started in 2009 when The Knife was still seen as active, so it’s not an either or situation. Fever Ray is also as dark and terrifying as anything The Knife ever did, maybe even more so at times. Karin is just a dark beast that deserves to be feared and awed and worshiped. Karin might be a living Nordic god, I am not ruling it out.
Just because Fever Ray is publicly revered does not make it any less rare a sighting. It’s a huge deal that Fever Ray is back—but now, as you understand, it is an even bigger bigger bigger deal that this return single was co-produced by Olof, marking (I point out once again) the first original collaboration between the Dreijer siblings in eight years!
I mean, look, maybe it’s just a big deal to me because I never got to see The Knife live, and I’ve been yearning for more of that band’s unparalleled sense of sinister sensuality for, like, a decade.
Either way, spooky season is here, bitch, and the Dreijers said “dance like your bones jumped out of your body and threw a rave at the graveyard,” so that’s what we’re about to do!
I didn’t knooooow I was going to write a love letter to Karin Dreijer when I sat down to write today’s newsletter, but I did know that I was feeling inspired by what I’ve always seen as one of my idols. Though Karin now prefers they/them pronouns, I first came to know Karin as one of those bad ass women that helped me figure out and own my own form of left-wing feminine energy.
In honor of that energy, I’m going to dedicate next week’s Wednesday newsletter to all the wonderful women of rock who showed me how not weird it was to be weird. You have to be a paid subscriber to enjoy that one. Quick! Sign up for that shit! Now is your chance!
Coming Up Next
Kat Calls: Ninajirachi
Thursday, Oct. 13 @ 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT
Twitch.tv/katbein
Speaking of bad-ass ladies, Ninajirachi is an artist I’ve admired for years. Based in Australia, the 22-year-old produces beautiful pop melodies and mixes them with frenetic percussion, hard-hitting bass and her own sultry vocals. If you like hyperpop or Shygirl or Baauer or anything that’s dope, you’re gonna like this.
Check out her latest single “X33 (Angel☆Type!)” with Kenta204 below.
Alsoooo, I promise Portola vlog is on its way. Working is hard, yo, especially when I have to do things like pay rent and therefore do like 500 other jobs, chief among them my day job! But seriously, I’m so stoked to show y’all what I cooked up out there, and III Points is right around the corner! YEEEET!
Alsooooo
My homie Harry Levan interviewed foundational house icon Kerri Chandler about his new album, which was entirely written and recorded on the dance floors of his favorite clubs around the world. It’s an insane deep-dive into a mad man’s musical brain. This one is a must-read for all the nerds and audiophiles.
My girl Lily wrote a couple incredible stories this week. First, you’ve got to read her essay on Iranian popstar Googoosh, a woman whose music continues to influence and inspire everyone from Kanye West to Khruangbin, and whose story of oppression and rebellion is perfectly mirrored by the human rights crisis that’s playing itself out in Lily’s ancestral country and former home right this very moment.
Lily also just published this interview with Dave Gahan, who spoke to her about the forthcoming Depeche Mode album, the band’s first since the passing of Andrew Fletcher. It’ll get ya in the feels.
Absolutely Necessary
(This is the part where I share songs that are so good, they’re absolutely necessary to listen to. That’s it. That’s the bar.)
I made two Spotify playlists for this section that you can follow: one weekly playlist updated with just the new stuff every week, and one cumulative playlist that will host every song I pick ever (until Spotify tells me it's full). Check them out! I made them for you—and me, but mostly you.
First of all, read First Spin in Billboard Dance! I contribute to it weekly, and this week I wrote about Bicep’s new tune “Water” and the debut EP from international-duo Tibasko. They’re both fucking amazing, and you should just read what I wrote there, but I’ll drop the tracks below so you can quick check them out. You should follow the playlist too, duh.
Bicep - “Water” Feat. Clara La San
Tibasko - “The Limit”
Carl Cox - “World Gone Mad”
Carl Cox just dropped a four-track EP, this being the title track, as a lil teaser for a full-length album that’s to come. It’s an absolute analog shitstorm of Mr. Oizo-level surrealist sound. I am so fucking here for it. If you like the repetitive, gritted-teeth techno of Homework, you’re gonna like this shit right here.
Mild Minds - “I Won’t Do”
This song came out a few weeks ago, as part of an EP on Foreign Family Collective, but it got lost in my notes, so I’m sharing it now. It’s an upbeat, feel-good rave anthem with sing-song vocals and hip-shaking rhythms. It kind of taps into that synth sound Bicep is good for. It’s rose-colored and fun.
St. Lucia - “Gimme The Night”
This is for all my maximalist, disco wall-of-sound people who wants their music to hit like a barreling train but go down smooth like a body-temp oil massage. St. Lucia is currently on tour, in support of the full-length album Utopia which just dropped in full. The closest show to me is Atlanta on Nov. 11. SHOULD I DO IT?!
Weval - “Never Stay For Love (feat. Eefje de Visser)”
Speaking of haunting, beautiful and layered synths and voices, this tune from Dutch duo Weval is my kind of sexy strange. You’re not ready for that hook, I promise.
Fulton Lee - “Say!”
I discovered this pastel suit-clad artist a few weeks ago when he went viral af on Instagram. He’s hilarious, immensely talented, funky as all get up, and he seems like a really kind-hearted family man. What’s not to like?
NNAMDÏ - “Touchdown”
Another candy-colored soundscape that’s all about glittering noises and smooth grooves. This one will have you bubblin over in your seat, even as it asks you to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.
Alright! That’s what I’ve got for you this week. It’s been real dope rockin’ with ya. I hope you consider joining those who have jumped on the paid tier. The more I’m able to make from my personal projects, the more time and energy I can dedicate to this thing—and trust, I have a lot I want to do!
Although, like, I’d love to hear what you’d like me to do :)
Thanks so much for being a part of this, whether you drop me a paid sub or not. I love you more than you know. Say hi once in a while! OKAY BYE, FRIENDS!
Thanks for tuning into my newsletter. Listen to the playlists on Spotify. One is updated weekly with all the songs from each edition. The other is cumulative with all the updates ever!
OMG you said Bloghouse! Yes that’s what it was called! So stupid, but an accurate description of how the music was shared. Also to a lot of people it was confusing cause it included so many genres of music. I dunno how to explain it, but we would all know if a track fit in with the rest or not. We just did.
It’s okay. Almost no one got to see The Knife play live. They played a few in 06, became massive. Refused to do an actually tour. Played random shows next few years. Then a “tour” in 2014 that was bullshit, slap in the face small. I refused to go to anymore Coachella after 2012( Family members went in 2014 and saw The knife…. One of who had refused to be my co-pilot and drive to cali in 06, because of course they will do a real tour SOON Chris…it’s crazy to drive that far for The Knife.) fast forward 8 years and he and my sister are driving to California to watch The Knife play. We actually have a rule that my sister and brother-in-law are not allowed speaking about The Knife in my presence.
That’s my story about not seeing the knife play live.