THE KNIFE DEEP CUTS ALBUM RABID RELEASE: JANUARY 17, 2002 REVIEW: JANUARY 21, 2002

The Knife is one of those bands who really deserve the "personal" tag. Karin Dreijer used to front punk pop band Honey Is Cool and her voice has always sounded rather special. In The Knife she tries - together with her brother Olof - to use her voice in even stranger ways and fuse musical styles into an eclectic mix of retro synth, punk and pop. The result is very personal, meaning unique and not to everybody's tastes.
As they have released their records on their own record label, The Knife is one of the recent, literally independent pop bands on the Swedish scene. These bands fiercely support each other, releasing one another's records and organizing their own indies "Grammy award"-style happenings. On "Deep Cuts" The Knife demonstrate this friendly atmosphere by praising their fellow band First Floor Power and inviting their singer Jenny Wilson in for a duet.
The Knife have interesting ambitions and some of their arrangements - snare drum ballads and eerie instrumentals - are exciting, but most of the songs stay on the experiment level. They just aren't good enough songs to work. Dreijer's voice goes from the most high-pitched squeal to the lowest rumble, and while that might sound interesting, she is no Diamanda Galas. Some tracks, like "The Cop" and "Hanging Out" are just tedious filler material of little interest, and the album is very uneven on the whole.
"Deep Cuts" is a quirky and moody collection of songs. Dreijer's way is not my way, but it might well be yours.

MATTIAS HUSS