A Darwin electro-opera
January 30, 2010 8:31 AM   Subscribe

The Knife (previously) have released a studio recording of 'Tomorrow, In A Year,' an "electro-opera"{video} based upon Darwin's 'Origin of Species.' Listen to the whole thing here.
posted by ennui.bz (18 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
The video looks amazing. I'd love to see that live.
posted by empath at 8:50 AM on January 30, 2010


I was hoping to make a post about this, but you've done a much better job of framing it thatn I would have.

Mine would have looked something like,
"The Knife!!!!!! New Album!!1!!! Opera!!1!!11! Darwin!!1!!!!!"
Because was pretty much my thought process when I heard.

posted by lekvar at 9:17 AM on January 30, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm with you on that, lekvar. Including all the 1s. This was especially fun for me because I'm currently reading Darwin's Beagle diaries. Good company for public transport.
posted by vortex genie 2 at 9:36 AM on January 30, 2010


Looks like hotelproforma is down. I anxiously await its return.

I was listening to "Colouring of Pigeons" and it kinda reminded me of a (very) minimal version of the "Diva Dance" in the Fifth Element.
posted by TimeTravelSpeed at 10:12 AM on January 30, 2010


Yowzer, its like Scott Walker with unsettling bleepage. Or indeed Jóhann Jóhannsson.
posted by Damienmce at 11:00 AM on January 30, 2010


Only two or three of the tracks are Knife-y at all, and according to the credits Karin Dreijer Andersson only does vocals for the alternate version of "Annie's Box" bonus-tracked on at the end, but still, damn. "The Height of Summer" might be my favorite track of theirs now. The libretto is good too, in a vaguely mechanical ESL-poetry kind of way.
posted by hototogisu at 11:16 AM on January 30, 2010


I'm trying to think of something intelligent to put here, other than "OMGOMGOMGOMG." But, ultimately, that would be the sentiment behind anything I could write.
posted by LMGM at 12:51 PM on January 30, 2010


Oh, this reminds me of that Natural Selection in Dub album that is a dub reggae version of Origin of the Species.
posted by fuq at 1:02 PM on January 30, 2010


Have to add this after seeing this clip on The Soup last night....

Karin Dreijer/Fever Ray and her melting mask at the P3 Gold Awards.

Freaky!
posted by EdoubleG at 1:05 PM on January 30, 2010


I've hard a tough time understanding this band, but like a lot of great music it's fullness and beauty doesn't really click until you see it live, which I haven't but I found this pretty gorgeous video, the music is so much prettier than the studio recording of this song.
posted by Skygazer at 2:05 PM on January 30, 2010


Listen to the whole thing here.

Might you have meant here (where you can listen to [and even, via safari, download...] the whole thing)?

Only two or three of the tracks are Knife-y at all, and according to the credits Karin Dreijer Andersson only does vocals for the alternate version of "Annie's Box" bonus-tracked on at the end

At the above-linked site, the credits are to The Knife on all tracks, plus Mt. Sims on 10 tracks and Planningtorock on two.
posted by progosk at 2:07 PM on January 30, 2010


That live version video makes me really want to see an electronica band do a 'live' performance where they're all playing obviously fake instruments that produce the sounds in the song -- with winches, harps, giant fantasy contraptions with strings and wires and things everywhere...
posted by empath at 7:51 PM on January 30, 2010


Eponysterical!

It came to me at track 6...
posted by CitoyenK at 8:45 PM on January 30, 2010


If you're not familiar with The Knife, they're the group that made the perfect electropop tune.

Once more I now want to be in a disco with three-or-so beers flowing through my skull.
posted by Anything at 7:43 AM on January 31, 2010


It sounds fascinating, but I'm wary of "electro-opera" even when it's a band I like as well as I do the Knife, so I'll be following the comments here with interest.
posted by immlass at 8:30 AM on January 31, 2010


...so I'll be following the comments here with interest.

Well, you don't have to buy it right away, you can stream the whole thing for free at the last link - that's what I did pretty much all last night.
posted by Evilspork at 10:49 AM on January 31, 2010


I saw this in its first run in Copenhagen. Good idea + good collaborators (planningtorock!), but it was, unfortunately, not a very good result. The music seemed pretty lazy, actually. I was disappointed.
posted by beerbajay at 1:46 PM on February 2, 2010


I did finally get a chance to sit down and listen to the MP3 (Colouring of Pigeons) that the Knife gives you for signing up to their mailing list. There's something almost medieval about the textures of the music that I wouldn't have expected. Since I love medieval music, this isn't a bad thing for me, but I can imagine it won't get a lot of traction. I'm definitely going to have to stream the whole album and probably buy it if the rest is in the same vein.
posted by immlass at 3:24 PM on February 2, 2010


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