“As menacing as it is hooky, this is some bracing stuff….(think Björk by way of Ari Up by way of Siouxsie Sioux by way of Mu's Mutsumi Kanamori)”
It’s not very often that a record strikes a gag reflex reaction almost immediately but The Knife’s Silent Shout has done just that. With rave reviews coming in from all directions (friends, the press, industry types…) I was certain I would at the very least enjoy this record but let me cut to the chase and tell you I don’t.
PFM says: "That said, only a handful of electronic full-lengths have navigated the vocal/textural divide as inventively as and refreshingly as Kid A. The latest is Silent Shout. "
That is one serious statement so imagine my shock and horror when I put on this new domestic version of Silent Shout (forthcoming on Mute) only to discover something that sounds more like lite-industrial dance wave, the kind of crap I steered clear of from labels like Wax Trax, Invisible, and Cleopatra years ago. (Sorry but no closet case batcave girl here)
Silent Shout doesn’t showcase “innovations piled hard on top of each other” as their press kit suggests, it screams goth-night for underage kiddies who aren’t old enough to know how bad most of this disco deathrock shit was the first time around.
Unless you happen to own black lipstick and a mesh top that looks like a spider web, I would tell you to buy the first Ministry record before I tell you to listen to one track on this thing no less buy the whole record. A PFM 8.6 rating is totally absurd. I’m not bothering with a rating at all and if you really need a spooky synth fix check out the band Zombi.
