The Knife | dailybeatz

Posts tagged with the knife

04/02/2011

Ellie Goulding – Roscoe (Midlake Cover)

This post was originally going to be entitled “Ellie Goulding – Heartbeats (The Knife Cover)”, but then I decided I’d find another Ellie Goulding cover that I hadn’t heard, because I know she’s done a lot of covers and her song selection for her covers is usually pretty legit I think. I was tempted for that second song to be her recent cover of Rihanna’s “Only Girl”, but then I decided I just couldn’t do it. So then I found this one and thought it could be the real deal, and I think it is. The original tune is layer upon layer of instruments and harmonies and it’s really, really great. I just recently included it on a mix, in fact. But the best songs are the ones that can be totally stripped down and still hold up just fine.

And then there’s the original reason for the post, her cover of The Knife’s “Heartbeats” (which of course was also memorably covered by Jose Gonzales) on BBC Radio 1′s Live Lounge, which has brought us many memorable covers that we’ve posted before, like my favorite favorite, the Miike Snow cover of La Roux’s “In For The Kill“. So here’s another pretty good one. And just like the First Aid Kit cover of Fever Ray’s “When I Grow Up” (I hope y’all are OK with this gratuitous backlinking), the acoustic version really showcases just how good the song actually is. Also, just about 2 weeks until I see Ellie Goulding at Coachella, so there’s that too.

Ellie Goulding – Roscoe (Midlake Cover)

Ellie Goulding – Heartbeats (The Knife Cover)

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01/12/2010

the knife – you take my breath away

how bout a rockin mid-week jam from everyones favorite cryptic brother/sister duo, the knife? right-o then. after staying out of the limelight for a few years, they released a 10+ minute track that is part of a darwin musical that theyve been working on. but i think its a bit strange out of context (kind of like the vampire musical from “forgetting sarah marshall”) so im playing a different song for you. karen dreijer andersson, a dailybeatz favorite, along with her brother olof are responsible for the sometimes creepy and always unique sounds of the knife and hopefully they will tour again soon, because their shows look like quite the experience.

“you take my breath away” is a knife track from the mid 2000s (interesting that just a few days after that decade ended, i cant seem to remember what we called it) and luckily it has nothing to do with the top gun baby-making song of almost the same name. this one is funky, upbeat and even an anthem of sorts with its repeated lines of “we are the people who come here to play/i dont like it easy/i dont like the straight way/we’re in the middle of something/we’re here to stay/and we raise our heads for the colour red.” im not sure what their anthem is proclaiming exactly, but i still like their passion on the subject, whatever it may be. i think all anthems should have a beat like this one. they would be much more effective i think.

the knife – you take my breath away

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12/14/2009

yeasayer – ONE

Yeasayer

as ive mentioned before, this year really opened my eyes to the wonder that is yeasayer. it wasnt until this past spring that i realy dove into “all hour cymbals” head first and realized how truly unique this group is even though i first listened to the album quite some time before that. and after seeing them at a few fests this summer, it was clear to me that their new album would be much more rhytmic than the first album. and after giving the album a few listens (for some reason i feel extremely guilty about this, moreso than with any other album leak), this is clearly the case. my initial reaction after completing the first listen was “im not quite sure what just happened, but i think i liked it”. the album is completely upbeat the entire time. theyve really got a knack for producing songs that sound unlike anything else. i like to call it “weird but awesome” — which is a play on my life motto “stupid but fun”. so far im a big fan but we’ll see what happens after a few more listens. i think there will be many mixed reactions, so im curious to hear what others think.

there really isnt a dull moment on this album. its kind of like going to a phish concert and having them NOT play a super slow song just when you think theyre going to take it to the next level right after a raging 15 minute jam that you hoped would never end . refreshing. while there were some great slower tunes on the first album, i think the upbeat is where yeasayer really excels, so im glad they went with that. there are a few tracks im loving on the album so far — ambling alp, madder red, love me girl, and ONE. ONE is probably the most accessible of the tracks on the album (i would say off the bat that “the children” is the least, with its modified vocals that remind me of a much weirder version of the vocals in the knifes “silent shout”. but i am gravitated towards the weird.) and i love how the melody that comes in around 1:15 just fills up the song.

yeasayer – ONE

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12/07/2009

im not a band – this is it

im not a band

another week begins and i think ive got some good tunes in store for this week, some new and some old. building upon the momentum created by fridays party time remix, i figured it would be best to post another rockin tune thats pretty much all electronic except for a…violin? yes, todays track is by berlin group im not a band, created by stephan j. he played a few instruments including violin and according to their myspace, began “playing laptop” a few years back. its really a pretty cool combination of classical sounds over kickin electronics.

the track “this is it” is sort of unassuming and even sounds happy, but as the track progresses, the intensity builds into minor mayhem. throw in some classic violin and you are thrown into some serious sonic bliss. i also like the change form the beginning to the end of the track. this song reminds me of pieces of so many other songs too, many of which ive posted in the past. the beginning is reminscent of beiruts “my night with a prostitute from marseille” or faunts “feel.love.thinking.of”, then theres a transition from major to minor that reminds me of the horrors “sea within a sea”. and finally, the second half of the song makes me think of what would happen if you were to take the knifes “silent shout’ and make it way more electronic than it already is. but of course this song still sounds like something thats all its own. ba-da-bah bah bah im lovin it.

im not a band – this is it

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09/23/2009

fever ray – seven

fever ray

things have been pretty good for karin dreijer andersson the past few years. besides the continued success of the knife, shes provided vocals for a few tracks for the royksopp albums “the understanding” and one of my favorite albums thus far this year, “junior”. but most notably is that very early this year she released her first solo album under the name fever ray, and in my opinion, her portfolio is strong to quite strong. the first time i listened to the album was early on a cool sunday morning driving through the mostly empty streets of detroit and the subsequent mostly empty highway, and it mood of the album fit the situation perfectly.

the album has quite a few standout tracks, but the one ive been listening to a lot lately is “seven”. and i dont really know why i like it so much. it just seems like sort of a bright spot among all of the darkness on the album. and lets be clear, when i say that, i dont mean the darkness in a bad way, because its not. and if you havent heard any of the fever ray album, you are probably going to think im crazy when i refer to “seven” as a “sort of bright spot”, but keep in mind that everything is relative. there are tons of remixes out there for tons of the songs on this album so keep an eye out for them and love them.

fever ray – seven

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07/06/2009

royksopp – the girl and the robot

royksopp live

im pretty excited about todays tune. i figured that lots of people might be reading today because many of us had a long weekend, and now we are back at work and searching for any distraction we can find. and i think this site, if not anything credible or entertaining, can at the very least be considered a distraction, no? so i figured this song might be a great distraction, and you might actually like it. the funny thing about this track is that i actually got the album a few months ago, listened to it once, really enjoyed it, and then completely forgot about it until about 2 weeks ago when i heard this song at grahams house as part of a j alexander mix and rediscovered it and boy am i glad i did.

the tune is “the girl and the robot” by norwegian dj duo royksopp. you may remember them from those geico caveman commercials a few years back. you know, the campaign where you enjoyed the first few commercials, then with each new commercial you hated it more and more. and then you heard that they were going to do a caveman tv show based on the commercials and really hated them. and then the show flopped, much to your chagrin. well, their song “remind me” was featured in one of those commercials, the one where the caveman is walking through an airport. while that is a great song, its very elevator music-y (in a good way though), and if thats your only exposure to this group, you will be very pleasantly surprised by their latest album “junior”. not only does it have block rockin beats, but it features some great scandinavian female vocalists such as my girl lykke li, karen dreijer andersson (aka fever ray and lead singer of the knife), and anneli drecker, another norwegian songstress who often tours with royksopp as their vocalist.

todays track features swedish sensation robyn on vocals and its kind of an awesome performance. damn gina, this girl has a great voice, especially for this genre. while you may remember her from pop hits such as “show me love” back in the day, she seems to have become pretty popular among the indie crowd after releasing some new material over the past few years as well in an interesting turn of events. this might be my favorite dance song of the year thus far. its especially enjoyable to enjoy the contrast when listening to the album between this song and the song that precedes it, the uber-fun opener “happy up here”.

royksopp – the girl and the robot

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