The Knife aren't just musicians but performance artists as well

The Knife is an electronic group from Sweden that have been around since 1999.  They consist of the siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer.  You’ve probably heard their song Heartbeats as it was covered by José González in a Sony Commercial.  I’m reviewing them today because they represent such an interesting contribution to the electronic music scene that even if you find that they aren’t your cup of tea (and this will be true of many) – I still think one has to be exposed to them for the sheer sake of how interesting their music is.

Music remains one of the hardest things to write about.  Ultimately, the replacement of music with words just doesn’t cut it.  But I’ll try to do my best nonetheless.   I think there is no better introduction to this group than the song ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’, the video of which can be found of youtube – so I will embed it here:

This video quite amazingly straddles the border between pop synth and the purely aggravating. The Knife drives the pop sound right through your chest with a jagged edged furiousness. It can’t be denied that one one level the sound is incredibly grating – and yet many will still find themselves bopping along.

The animation for the video was provided by Motomichi Nakamura.  He writes of the video:

The animation starts with a girl that wakes up from a long sleep and starts searching for a sacred apple. At the end of a nightmarish story the girl is able to find her apple but only to discover the real price that she has to pay for it.

There are allusions to the classical Eden story and the price of knowledge.  Nakamura hints at the relationship between knowledge, bondage and suffering.  At the end of the video, the girl has her apple, but her head has been stolen by a giant winged creature.  The lyrics compliment this vision but also suggest another interpretation:

We came down from the north
Blue hands and a torch
Red wine and food for free
A possibility
We share our mothers’ health
It is what we’ve been dealt
What’s in it for me?
Fine
Then I’ll agree

Trees there will be
Apples, fruits maybe
You know what I fear
The end is always near

One might see a kind of hedonistic invocation here.  Coming down from the cold north to where they can get red wine and food for free – comfort.  But there is the suggestion of the futility of this aim in the final two lines.  What be comfort in the face of death?

The deeper voice chimes in to suggest further that such a pursuit leads to a lack of authenticity:

Say you like it
Say you need it
When you don’t
Looking better
Shining brighter
Than you do

Just as with the search for knowledge, comfort can just as easily lead to bondage and slavery – slavery to those that provide the comforts, slavery to the work-a-day life needed to acquire such comforts, or even slavery to the comforts themselves.  They are a false garb that signal a richness that does not in fact exist.

It is quite simply an awesome song.  The kind of song you can listen to and ponder over and over again.

The band also embodies for me what are some of the best traditions of electronic music.  Not long ago I went to see anAir concert and was blown away by the auditory and visual experience.  That’s the kind of thing that one goes to see an electronic concert for.  Apparently The Knife does not do live shows very often – but there is a clip of one of their shows on Youtube, and it looks incredible.  The atmosphere is completely overwhelming.  If you’ve got the time I recommend watching the whole thing – but if not just watch the first few minutes.  Best that I sign out of this review with their music out front.  So that’s it from me.  Enjoy!