Union Of Knives are three Glaswegian knob twiddlers who have decided to form a group. Forming a group is good enough, but doing something interesting with it is something else.
Building an electronic base from later day Radiohead, early the Cure and Massive Attack, Union Of Knives make icy music constructed from stuttering beats and loops of strings alongside a barrage of pounding and hypnotic effects over which glide mournful vocals.
Parts of the album work such as the soft chorus of opener of
Opposite Direction or the HUGE tribal beat that drives
I Decline. But all too often the songs are padded out longer than they should be with extra snippets of sound, and the momentum is lost.
Yet there are moments of beauty as on
The Law Is Against My Heart that make this record worth checking out, especially for fans of atmospheric electronica.
A debut that shows promise at the very least.
Out on...
