RELIGIOUS KNIVES

Been a little behind in my noise-gathering duties lately, but a big thanks to those of you who are sending stuff, and I promise to get on some of those soon as well as accelerating my seeking habits...for now, I'm gonna blab a little about someone you probably already know, Religious Knives. Anyone vaguely familiar w/me or this blog is probably sick of me spewing about Mouthus and Double Leopards, but hey, I'm not gonna pretend that I don't eternally love em both, cause I do. So naturally I pretty much loved Religious Knives (Nate of Mouthus w/Mike & Maya of Double Leopards) before I'd even heard them, and definitely did once I had. The tangent the group took the first few times I saw them - kind of droney/dreamy but structured and even rock-ish music - was definitely intriguing and tough to pin down, and their first few recs that I heard - an excellent 3-track CD-R called RK4, and this year's No Fun debut Remains - kept that mystery going, with most of their songs resisting definition through murky atmospheres and a kind of floating, beat-less forward motion.

Cut to a coupla days ago, when I got to see the Knives again for the first time since January's Winter Ends Destruction fest held in the waning months of Tonic. They've been playing a decent amount lately including a European tour, and judging by the absolutely hypnotic set they played this time, have become a bit of a rock (or even prog-rock) monster. The addition of a bassist (whose name escapes me, sorry) gives their stuff a kind of chugging locomotion, and the way they accent simple patterns with Mike and Maya's radiant guitar, warming keys, and ghostly moans is really stunning. Parts are pretty Kraut-y in a Can sense, but what I really dig is how these guys maintain their noise-sculpture sensibility in the context of structured rock. Every song, as repetitive and patterned as they got, had a core drone and attention to sonic texture that I doubt would be there if these guys weren't already experts at manipulating and massaging pure abstraction.

Mike was nice enough to bequeath me a tour CD-R before the show, a split with the Knives' Euro tour-mates Airport War. Both of the Knives' contributions are still a little airier than what I saw them play this week, but "Everything Happens Twice" definitely captures some of the vibe of their current sound, moreso than anything on Remains. Nate's beat is more prominent, the bass has definitely got the repeto-groove down solid, and Mike's guitar and the spectre-like vox in the second half are right on target. I'm now way more stoked for the band's next release, whatever/whenever - and, oddly, kinda way more into the previous ones now, as you can hear the seeds of this new sound germinating there - so prepare yourself for more sycophantic fawning whenever that next rec should emerge.

mp3:
RELIGIOUS KNIVES - "Everything Happens Twice" from Religious Knives /Airport War split tour CD-R