the kniφe - shaking the habitual

Lol I was just yanking ppl's chains about the thread lying dormant (tho this has not clicked at all for me yet)

"stay out here" sounds as fierce to me as "full of fire". In fact, the whole thing, minus the middle ambient track, seems very tightly wound and furious. I think this album is stranger and more difficult to absorb than Silent Shout or Fever Ray, but in the end that feels like a plus

I like what Sherburne's review of the album in spin said about the centerpiece track, that it is the incorporation of their politics into the fabric of the music, the "building an album about not knowing"

has somebody already posted a link to their "manifesto" here? It's alternately trenchant, incomprehensible, and hilarious

http://poetry.rapgenius.com/The-knife-shaking-the-habitual-manifesto-lyrics

I'm torn between this and Tomorrow's Harvest for album of the year. Might have to flip a coin

xpost Dan S OTM. It's the 'duck's eye' of the album, albeit a very big one. Putting their money where their mouths are I guess.

PS I'm pretty sure it's my AOTY.

Duck's eye?

http://davidlynch.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_Of_The_Duck:About

maybe it's not quite the right analogy, but i think without the drone track, even if it's not your bag, its placement and the very way it challenges conventional album logic (gigantic experimental ambient tracks usually go towards the end) reflects a lot of the themes and philosophies surrounding STH.

wrt "Old Dreams", I am… kind of alarmed that even the tiniest amount of "non-functionality" would cause any, any sort of kerfuffle. Like, I had no idea people were so precious about traditional forms of listenability and playability and track listing, esp. in this case which is miiiiiiles away from anything actually transgressive (i.e. the track is rather good and splits the album neatly in two)

Yeah, I really like it but there was quite a reaction upthread to it and I think that was intentional to some extent. I can't think of many pop records that have a 20 minute ambient noise exercise put slam bang in the middle of the album. It is subversive in its own way, kind of Situationist scheduling or something.

I like the eye of the duck idea.

I can't think of many pop records that have a 20 minute ambient noise exercise put slam bang in the middle of the album.

It's just a 20-minute "Treefingers" imo

if "old dreams..." can even be called a subversion it's a pretty bloody mild one (and also all too easily unsubverted by skipping/deleting)

the album held up but that's nothing to do with that track

It is subversive in its own way, kind of Situationist scheduling or something.

Kind of intrigued as to how shit something would need to be for Dog Latin not to employ that defence wrt this album. The theory doesn't excuse the music at all.

not a fan then Matt?

I heard "Old Dreams..." on college radio over the weekend while driving with friends and it was kind of great. The driver kept wondering if there was something wrong with his mother-in-law's car.

Anyway, as lex said months ago, the album's real failure is "Fracking", that is the only track on this for which I have no headspace

There's a decent chance that this is my album of the year. I'm still kind of disappointed with it though. I don't like it nearly as much as Tomorrow in a Year (almost certainly the album of the decade so far).

Going to the concert with my family. Not sure my parents are aware of what they got into.

How the hell did people get tickets at the venue tonight since the pre-sale is tomorrow and the general sale is Saturday?

Bummed that they don't look to be planning a stop in Texas on their US tour

I said "it's great to see Lady Sovereign is still getting work" but I can't remember if that was here or Facebook ;_;

― Darth Icky (DJP), Friday, 22 March 2013 15:25 (9 months ago) Permalink

nothing like her

This was one of those albums I found it really hard to get *inside*, because the bulk of my listening at that point was done, on spotify, at work. And this is *so* not a "listen to, at work, in the background, while you program" album, in the way that their other albums were able to be relegated to that space. It's one of those albums that if you don't give it your full attention, it won't reveal anything to you, but if you listen to it closely, it will give up all kinds of secrets and rich rewards. It was an album that I had to find the right atmosphere to listen to it in, to get it (that atmosphere was "in my living room, on a stereo (not headphones) while I was drawing." And then, suddenly, it clicked, and I was just astonished at how layered and abstracted it was, and also, how much it sounded *like The Knife*, but the elements of The Knife that you never think of as being "Knife-like" (bcz think of the artists that usually get compared to them) until you hear them isolated.

The other album that was closest to this experience was Dawn Richard's Goldenheart. They sound nothing alike, but the quality of being almost overwhelming because they are too long, too arty, too intense, too complex and layered and full-on - all the things that become *rewarding* about the album when you give the album the time to encounter it on its *own* terms, instead of imposing work listening conditions upon it.

And now I love both of those albums, in a way I'm really glad I gave the time to, otherwise I would have missed something amazing.

yeah you pretty much described the reason why I never managed to get into this - having a new born baby, I just can't seem to find that dedicated listening space anymore, apart from in my car (and for some reason that album never grabbed me while driving)

BB, yeah. I only listen to records-for-fun when I'm cooking and those are the two 2013 records that made me stop and listen and burn something

Listening to both those records really is like, you have to sit, and listen, and pay attention, like listening to an opera. They don't work as background music.

yeah which is why I have listened through each like twice

I am so buying tickets for this, regardless of whether I can go or not

Seriously FUCK THIS. From the moment it started I clicked and clicked and it said "all tickets in cart" meaning nothing was available and now it says presale is old out.

huh

I got that "all tickets in cart" msg and refreshed my browser, got a purchase link no prob

fly to Boston, I'll give you my extra

may have to visit NYC

BB OTM. I'm starting to think I'm sort of cursed-blessed in that I can't listen to music at work, so nearly all my music listening is done either on the train (I can pretty much block out background noise) or at home on headphones or on nice speakers (so long as it's before midnight). Definitely explains why this is my AOTY followed by several other 'deep listening' choices ('Photographs' by Graham Lambkin & Jason Lescaleet I'm looking at you).

I like this album a ton but if The Knife really wants to pander to me, they'll put out an album full of songs in the vein of "NY Hotel"

I absolutely am going to NYC for this. (assuming i can get a ticket)

Well, that fucking sucked. The link to Terminal 5 from the Knife mailing list and their own tour page went to the wrong event listing, but since the error page read as follows:

"Tickets are currently not available online for one of the following reasons. Please check back for availability.

Tickets may not be on sale yet
Tickets may not be available at this time. More tickets may become available later"

I (and plenty of other people, I would imagine) sat in front of their computer hitting F5 like a jackass until doing a search from the venue's page only to find the show had completely sold out in under an hour.

And another disappointed fan in the comments at Terminal 5 is noting that 264 of those tickets are already being scalped on StubHub. Once again, Ticketmaster can choke on a basket of hot salted dicks.

For anyone else similarly frustrated, a second night at Terminal 5 was just put up for sale!

http://www.terminal5nyc.com/event/475021-knife-new-york

I had the same problem but when I searched from ticketmaster it was fine. It only didn't work when I did it from the terminal 5/knife links.

Just saw them tonight in Pomona and thought the show was great. From what I had read before about "separating the audience from performer," and even knowing that they toned it down, I was afraid that it would be a troupe of dancers going out into the audience and embarrassing random people. Not at all! It was all put together very well, the choreography and lighting were amazing, and the sound in the venue made it all sound so great. I'd go so far as to say that the show gave me a new appreciation for the album. (Somebody in either this or the C/D thread said that StH requires one's full attention, maybe that was it?) Like they did on the Silent Shout tour, they re-worked their older songs to fit in with their current sound (minus "One Hit" which was left intact) and I think hearing those versions could benefit anybody who is still cold on the direction they took with Shaking the Habitual. Like the way-detuned steel drums in the re-made "Pass This On," or the more clangorous elements of "We Share Our Mother's Health," they've been doing it all along, just not to such a degree. It sounds dumb, but I totally get it now. Can't wait for the live release!

a live album would be interesting, i must say.

especially if they kept in the crowd noises with lots of displeased people leaving in disgust.

They obviously wouldn't choose the London show, but I'm kind of interested to see it!

I don't care what kind of radical semiotics or whatever the group is invoking or aiming for, the show last night was one of the dumbest, most embarrassing things I've ever seen, up/down there with the time I saw Billy Corgan recite poetry while wearing an army helmet with lights shining out of it. The Knife being lame was noteworthy mostly because the Fever Ray show a few years back was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. What a missed opportunity. This kind of dumb non-spectacle could have been done smarter.

I wasn't into it either. Love the duelling vocals from Shannon and Karin though

bummed to have missed this show

there was too much non-dancing to pre-recorded stuff for me. that was at least 1/4 of the show. the tracks they actually performed live were pretty good, I thought.

What was with the doofus cheerleader who started the show?

I felt it was more than 1/4 pre-recorded, and frankly, I don't see the point of playing it live (was it even?) for part of the show, and then just relying on pre-recorded for the remainder. They could have billed it as a dance performance and it still would have been lame but maybe at least lame on its own terms. How much were tickets? $35? I guess on that front it could have been worse.

The worst thing about the show is that I was with a friend who kept saying "no, give it another song, maybe it's going to change/get better," and I kept responding, no, it really isn't. Like, I know that for a fact. And she kept going "just one more song ..." And it was so stupid. I would have rather gone out for dinner, come home, found my copy of "Shaking the Habitual" and not listened to it.

so how many of you picked up the let's talk about gender baby hoodie?

Perhaps I'm a rube who enjoys light shows set to pre-recorded music (and vocals much of the time), but if you know that going in it's not so bad. If you'd read anything about The Knife since they started performing this album nearly a year ago, you would have known that.

All I remember about the Fever Ray show was that Karin had a full band and it sounded heavy and there were a bunch of old lamps on stage.

But yeah, the "doofus cheerleader" reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyqUj3PGHv4