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Knife in the Water Reproduction

Knife in the Water — Reproduction (March 3, 2017)

Knife in the Water — Reproduction (March 3, 2017)  Knife in the Water — Reproduction (March 3, 2017)↔★••→   Austin quintet Knife in the Water have taken their moniker from the early Roman Polanski movie Nóz w Wodzie for a reason: the parallel between their music and the slow dread and bare~rought tension of the film is uncanny.
••→   I was horrified very recently to realize that Knife in the Water’s astounding debut, Plays One Sound and Others, will be twenty years old next year. Still, there is good news for those of you who for one reason or another, possibly involving not being so aged, have never heard it: It was just remastered and released on vinyl, which should hopefully draw the valuable but fickle attention of young people to it.
••→   “Reproduction” is the long~awaited 4th LP by Austin band Knife in the Water, the first since 2003’s “Cut the Cord.”
Location: Austin, TX
Album release: March 3, 2017
Record Label: Keeled Scales
Genre: Alternative Rock
Duration:     43:43
Tracks:
1. Call It a Shame     6:29
2. Beware a Holy Whore     4:33
3. Sex Change     4:57
4. Pain to Burn     6:21
5. Sweet Gene     6:07
6. Mary Alice     4:46
7. Morgellons     6:54
8. I Can Go On     3:36
℗ 2017 Keeled Scales
Personnel:
••   Bill McCullough,
••   Aaron Blount,
••   Vince Delgado,
••   Annecy Liddell,
••   Matt Strmiska,
••   Shelley McCann
About Sweet Gene:
••→   “‘Sweet Gene’ is about reconfiguring the image of a person you love, and adjusting what you allow of them to reside within yourself,” says singer Aaron Blout. “As you lose connection with a dangerous person, whether they are losing selfhood from mental illness or other damage, intimacy puts you in a particular state of confusion. You ask yourself, am I the one that’s losing touch with reality? You watch them lose their sense of self and you realize, that what makes them real beyond physical presence is a series of images and ideas in your memory. Only when the person is gone from your life and you’re deprogrammed and no longer under threat, can you confront their complexity. We don’t have any distinct idea where our own sense of identity ends and another person’s begins, our senses of self are like clouds colliding and blurring into one another. Knowing you can’t erase your memory of another person fully, you can love beyond cruelty by allowing their kindness as a memorial.”
About band:
★↔★••→   Even better, the band is about to put out its first new record in nearly fifteen years. Reproduction is immediately recognizable as a Knife in the Water work, with the slow, loping sadness and low~pressure beauty that made Plays One Sound such a revelation those (JESUS HOW?) twenty years ago. They sound just a little more scuffed up with age, but look in the mirror, the last twenty years have been much rougher on you.
★↔★••→   This is a record that could easily have come out any time in the last twenty years, and a continuing demonstration of what makes Knife if in the Water so special: Reproduction clocks in at 44 minutes, and even for a band that loves to let things take their time there is no excess on the album. (“I Can Go On” — the double meaning of which is so perfect for a song that it is hard to believe it has not been used to more success by anyone before — is a great example: What could be a classic rave~up stays at its own considered pace, to lasting effect.) You can stream the whole thing below, and I recommend that you do. Enjoy.
Press:
••→   “If anything, their debut reminds me of the Coen Brothers’ Blood Simple, with just a few rough elements sketching out the tragic folk and wronged lovers. Burning trailers, severed ears, hatchbacked wrecks along the highway, taps of unhooked screen doors-- these gruesome images flicker along with the entwined throats of the two singers.” — Andy Beta, Pitchfork
••→   “This record gets you nowhere fast, which is hardly a problem. You'll be in no hurry to leave.” — David Fricke, Rolling Stone
••→   “Capable of making music that stumps anyone who tries to talk sensibly about it.” — Phoenix New Times
••→   “Should the Nashville grandees ever decide to send country music into space, the Texans’ Knife in the Water would be perfect zero~gravity ambassadors.” — London Times
••→   “If ever there was a little known band to be championed it’s Knife in the Water, and this record has to be heard. Find of the year.” — Muse Ireland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knifeinthewater/
Website: https://www.knifeinthewater.net/
Bandcamp: https://keeledscales.bandcamp.com/album/reproduction-2
Label: http://keeledscales.com/
About previous album Plays One Sound and Others/Andy Beta/Score: 8.4:
••→   http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/11770-plays-one-sound-and-others-red-river-cut-the-cord/
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Knife in the Water Reproduction

ALBUM COVERS XI.