Next to emerge from this current wave of gloomy-grizzly indie rock bands are Philadelphia’s, Her New Knife, translating modern disturbia through a dystopian sonic lens.
Mingling lo-fi, noise, shoegaze and industrial textures via classic influences like My Bloody Valentine or Slint – for recent references think bar Italia, Model/Actriz (at moments) and Julie (with whom the band are currently touring the US) – it’s a style that’s smothered in absorbing grooves and tantalising abstractions, sounding quite close to misery but is actually mystifying expression of self-empowerment. It’s grimy, it’s moody; it’s hoods over faces half concealed; it’s an aversion to taking photographs in focus and a desire to render in noise an amorphous ball of troubled, angsty feeling and bizarre but beautiful hopefulness. It’s either a suave concealment of deep-down shyness or a seriously cool and attractive aesthetic ploy. Here’s to it being both and neither of them.
While all these efforts to contextualise Her New Knife within an alternative zeitgeist might bring them across as mere imitators or tail-coat riders, their intricate alchemies of all the above render them a deeply compelling prospect in their own godless right. The pummeling, slow-cooking riffage of ‘purepurepure’ or ‘skinny/baby’ are gripping exposés of spine-chilling tension and murderous release. The shoegaze-worship of ‘veaserella’ or ‘vitamin beauty’ tastefully channel those aforementioned 90s influences while ‘12r’ is an unhinged highlight: that ‘Model/Actriz-moment where the boundaries between ‘rock’ and ‘electronic’ become difficult to draw (I swear there’s an actual blacksmith anvil clank on there.)
Across the 6 songs on ‘chrome is lullaby’, Her New Knife twist that blade deeper and deeper into your rotting soul, leaving their indelible bloody-handed print on your mental list of ‘sick up-coming bands’ and making sure they’re one of them.
Photo by Adris Raal
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