YOUNG KNIVES - BARBARIANS
Rosie shares her thoughts on the upcoming Young Knives release, Barbarians, and lets you know whether she thinks you should listen or not.
Mercury prize nominated indie-rock oddballs, Henry, Tom and Oliver, AKA, Young Knives have recorded their first full length album in 7 years. Despite releasing hell of a lot of material over the past years, since the early 2000s, previous album ‘Sick Octave’ (2013) became a real defining factor for them, not just musically but also in terms of developments in our society in the past decade, resulting in their music coming to a halt. “We need a good reason to make a record.” and sure enough, here it is.
From divisive politics such as the Brexit fiasco and another decade of the Tories to the shambolic handling of the coronavirus and a focus on the BLM movement and police brutality, Young Knives have found inspiration amongst the madness. By questioning our existence and developments as humans, they explore this with philosophical theories. The concept Barbarians is built around takes influence from philosopher John Gray and his book ‘Straw Dog’ which suggests that no matter what progress humanity makes, or what advances we make in our understanding of how the universe works, we as a species have become no less barbaric. Henry agrees, “as a society we are obsessed with self and social improvement, but we don’t get better as human beings”.
‘Swarm’ introduces the album with a vintage, video game sounding tune building up into a faster melody with minimal, droning spoken word and electric guitar riffs. The track then becomes distorted and messy with vocals shouting, “FREEDOM WITH A BIG F”. A noisy, direct start to the album that plunges it into a fusion of punk inspired lyrics and vocal style and electronica. Taking influences from Kratwerk and the likes, the tracks flow easily into one another as continuation of the music.
‘Barbarians’ refers to the barbaric practises of uncivilized and brutal behaviour. Starting off with what sounds like some kind of scrap and pulsing bass lines, this track is far from silent and complying. Dramatic, with war cries and harmonised vocals, “put your money where your mouth is let's go for a hunt”. A wild hybrid of hard rock sounds next to harping synths and guitar riff while being heavily political, ‘Barbarians’ is a head- turning, borderline sarcastic anthem playing in the role of this group of people, Enter Shikari’s track ‘Slipshod’ comes to mind when hearing it.
Young Knives have really gone above and beyond for this album, and challenged everything they’ve ever known, they’re an act to remember for sure and as Harry puts it, “ If I die and people remember us as that band that wore tweed, then I have fucking failed.” When you think the album couldn't get any more bizarre, along comes robotic vocals, yodelling and more wackiness.
Barbarians is a loud, chaotic mix of electronic, indie-rock, hard rock and 80s synths. A fusion that seems unlikely but somehow adds an eccentric yet dark twist on each track to make a statement. A truly unforgettable album.
Rosie Chalk
★★★★☆