Let's see if I can cough up this entry in ten minutes

[petronia]

The Knife - Pass This On
The Knife - Pass This On (Hugg and Pepp Remix)
The Knife - Pass This On (M.A.N.D.Y.'s Knifer Remix)

Long lead time on this band. I must've had Rex the Dog's remix of "Heartbeats" for six months before I could see what everyone found so amazing about it, and now that I've been playing their tracks quasi-obsessively for several days I still can't quite say why I like them. Quick-decay programmed drum, MIDI synth melodies, reallyreallyreally weird vocals... I can't parse what's happening within these songs, and music that confuses me tends to lose my interest. ^^; But there's something about the way the two-headed-alien-Bjork vocal lines weave around the blippy riffs that hooks me like - like hooks. Silver fishhooks with barbed ends that draw blood.

Okay, the imagery is weird. But the songs are weird! ...No?

The remixes are more straightforwardly danceable (the original is on a sort of erm tango beat) though no less complex. Hugg and Pepp preserve more of the original feel but M.A.N.D.Y. introduces an early-90s Nintendo riff that is killer. I've also got the "Silent Shout" single if anyone's interested, it's like this but more... gothtrance.

(P.S. For those of you keeping track at home, yes this is the hilarious Byakuya/Rukia/Renji song as performed in a glass-shattering nasal falsetto by a Swedish woman with a heavy accent. DAER RUKIA PLS TO HELP A HOMIE OUT. ...I mean, I didn't even bother to pay attention to the lyrics until pretty late in the game. What is even better is that the Knife are a brother and sister.)

I have more mp3s to post, but I'm out of time. XD

Comments

[one-if-by-land.livejournal.com]

(!) I just downloaded two The Knife tracks from Said the Gramophone, so I'm downloading these, too. :)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ah yeah, their album and new single came out recently. XD If you poke around the blogosphere a bit you'll find half a dozen of their songs and remixes easy.

[cis.livejournal.com]

coo, a mandy remix! I'd only heard the dahlback&dahlback. Someone on my flist once said that it's the Knife tracks with steel drums in that are really really good, which I kind of think holds - I associate that sound so much with carnival/school fairs/dudes busking for charity during the christmas rush/other such occasions of general cheer, makes it all the more painfully mournful. I'm still not convinced about the Knife, they're a little too... tragicomic? ...silly? I need to acclimatise myself to their sound every time I listen, so even when there's a phenomenal emotional impact it's oddly delayed. but then i develop a huge attachment to eg 'you take my breath away'.

(i've always thought of this as an angel sanctuary song, i realise.)

Thinking of things in similar vein, do you have zeigeist's 'tarheart'? (track that people downloaded thinking was knife, realised wasn't, went swedophile crazy over) if not, do you want?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the steel drums and mournfulness... I think it might be the mood of the songs that weirds me out - it's not any of the usual things like gloomygoth or shoutydancepunk or sleekelectroglam or sadfloatytechno. The synth hooks are fireworks-behind-the-eyes euphoric, like you're listening to trance, but all the rest of the sound effects are dancepunk-y in a way that to me is abrasive/menacing/paranoid. It sounds like what I imagine taking a second pill as you're coming down off the first would feel like, frankly. ^^;

I'm more relieved when they come out with something like the Stina Nordenstam remix that sounds like Joy Division, or one of the electro house remixes (of which I sort of count the Royksopp guest spot), because at least then I know where I stand. Or something. But however it happened they have me at that hit-repeat-button-obsessively spot right now.

I have the Zeigeist! Picked it off the Thread last Saturday. XD The melody reminds me v. strongly of something I just... can't think what.