August 6, 2007

The Young Knives: Are Dead

Oxford yelpers' debut album rereleased

7 / 10 The Young Knives didnï¿½t just walk out of a branch of Barbour & Sons and into our lives in 2005. By then theyï¿½d already spent several years honing their craft, recording this mini-album for Oxford label Shifty Disco in 2002. All the quirks we have come to love from the tweed-clad trio are in evidence here: tetchy rhythms, yelped harmonies, false endings and bristling basslines that drill their way into your cortex. The influence of US art-rock bands Pere Ubu and Sonic Youth is more pronounced than on the Mercury-nominated ï¿½Voices Of Animals And Menï¿½, culminating in the magnificently brooding Pavement-esque epic ï¿½Diamonds In The Westï¿½. The lack of an ear-spearing epiphany in the vein of ï¿½The Decisionï¿½ is tempered here by the bonus inclusion of 2003 single ï¿½Rollerskaterï¿½, an unexpectedly frothy electro-pop diversion.

Sam Richards

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