I first heard of The Knife, like many millions of others I'm sure, through Jose Gonzales' cover of Heartbeats. I liked his warm version but preferred the more driven original version. Once switched on to the sound of The Knife I went through their albums, Silent Shout: An Audio Visual Experience became a firm favourite.
I have fond memories of going for a drive through the streets of London late at night with my best friend, when neither of us could sleep. We would wind the windows down and the cold breeze would blow through the car, the deep sonorous bass vibrating around us, surrounding us in its deep cocoon and we wound our way around the bright lights of the City and the dark streets of the East End.
With the CD came a DVD of the album performed live in Gothenburg, Sweden; it became my benchmark for quality live performances. The songs on the live performance were amazing and dark, it lifted their music into darker soundscapes and the vocals became more distorted and eerie. As a result of this The Knife had gained a reputation for being dark moody individuals with many claiming them satanic. This gained ground as the years passed by without an album proper. Then in 2013 Shaking The Habitual dropped and whilst gaining critical acclaim was for many a slow burner, taking many listens to love. Many claimed it was a sign of their pretentiousness and high mindedness however I really liked it, my favourite track being A Cherry On Top.
