By Kim Stolz

I've spent the last two years waiting for my favorite band of this decade, Sweden's the Knife, to come out with a new album. The most recent release I came across was their live "Silent Shout Audiovisual Experience" — and for anyone who has been to one of their live shows, it's breathtaking and exciting to have those visuals on DVD. But I want more! Fresh material, new songs ... A year or so ago, I heard that singer Karin Dreijer was pregnant, and the brother-sister duo was on hiatus. Congrats to her, but disaster for me! Recently, we found out that Olof Dreijer was off in the Amazon recording birds, animals, and nature for a new Darwinian Opera. What? Perhaps a Swede's take on a Steve Reich-ian/Philip Glass-ian geological/environmental recording concept will be refreshing. Still, though, us Knife fans yearn for the strikingly haunting and beautiful voice of Karin (and don't you dare say she sounds like Björk!).
Read more...