KNOWER is a duo group of Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi, and this album, recorded mostly live in Louis Cole's house with a host of talented other musicians, is pretty good, so let's walk through it track by track.
1. Knower Forever
This is Louis Cole's "yeah I went to music school" track. I'm not sure if it is recorded purely from live instruments (they did manage to wedge a lot of strings and brass into his house for the video tracks) or if it is supplemented with sampled instruments. A recurring motif of S, R G m G S 'D S over shifting harmonies, and lots of Mahlerian dissonance including the final death shriek chord.
2. I'm The President
The first released track on Youtube, sets the pattern for the whole album. Sam Wilkes (PBUH!) starts this track out with a funky, splatty bassline soon doubled by a whole low brass section. The video is packed with the usual KNOWER / Louis Cole live sesh easter eggs (moreso than the other videos from the album). Sam Wilkes definitely anchors the track with that solid, percussive 8th note groove. You get a first taste of the comical scale of this enterprise when the camera goes out to a "driveway choir" recording backing "oohs". But my favorite point is at the bridge where Paul Cornish hops off his keyboard, runs down the stairs past Genevieve (reversing his shirt for ridiculous silly reasons) and jumps on a beat-up old upright to play a just fantastic jazz piano solo, while the choir swells up in the driveway.
3. The Abyss
Crisp, small group this time with Rai Thistlethwayte on keys, MonoNeon on bass, and Sam Gendel on sax. MonoNeon and Sam Wilkes trade bass duties throughout the album and it is a great comparison of their respective (very different) styles. Highlights on this track are the little explosions of bass fills that happen here or there, LC fills leading to the solos, Sam Gendel's wild solo hovering over a 9th, and then a fiery keys solo where MonoNeon hops out and lets Rai do both bass and lead simultaneously.
4. Real Nice Moment
Same personnel as the last track, with Paul Cornish adding additional pads on as well as the return of the Driveway Choir. The main musical driver here is Rai Thistlethwayte's detuned synth arpeggios, and the vocals are very clean snd smooth. Closest thing to a smooth jazz groove on the album (which sounds like a criticism, alas, but not meant as such). Paul Cornish hops back on the beatup upright for another solo before it runs back into the chorus (with the detune synth arpeggio doubled by Sam Gendel). Outro is a lush driveway choir showpiece.
5. It's All Nothing Until It's Everything
An ambitious tune that has grown on me, this one uses some tricky rhythms (including an omnipresent eight triplets in the bass line that is just difficult to think through at times). Deeply weird, with lots of discord in the verse and prechorus before building up to a full sounding chorus with a...more accessible...melody and a richer synth pad chord progression (still with the strange bass beat). The repeated chorus then adds a large downstairs string section...a drum and bass break leads on into a chordal ascending section with Rai Thistlethwayte in an incredible single-note solo with just his right hand on the aforementioned upright.
6. Nightmare
MonoNeon's back on bass for this one, which has a simple descending dyad progression as the basis for most of the first half. A highlight is the half-time section where Jacob Mann takes a funky break on the synth in the kitchen. Then back into the chorus, and leading out into the extended outro which is almost its own song...Louis and MonoNeon completely locked in, one of the funkiest grooves on the record, with Genevieve and the keyboards just adding color on top of the main course drum and bass groove.
7. Same Smile, Different Face
A duet of Louis Cole on his upright piano and Genevieve. I love the warm, atypical sound of his upright for this...has more richness than you would have gotten out of a perfectly sampled Steinway. But its a beautifully crafted song with a lovely melody and chord progression, albeit an obvious homage to McCartney's Yesterday given the melodic/harmonic pattern here and there, and also with a really lush string section that builds as it goes. Outro chord progression makes me want to learn how to play the piano! The sweetest sounding song on the album, which is why they obviously placed it right next to the following song for contrast...
8. Do Hot Girls Like Chords
Sam Wilkes leads off with an insane fuzz bass riff that drives this tune, while Paul Cornish just holds down a single discordant note on the synth. This one is also deeply weird, I should say. The layering of Genevieve's voice at certain points is a good effect. Then you get what you rarely hear on a KNOWER track, a guitar solo, from Adam Ratner...Wilkes first pedals, then shifts into the chorus progression under his solo.
9. Ride That Dolphin
This one is more like a Sam Wilkes showcase, with the choppy style he used a lot with Scary Pockets. The other notable thing is the driveway choir comes back for an bridge. Genevieve joins in and has kind of an MJ sound that she's good at. Then we're back into the main form, with the bass still in the drivers seat.
10. It Will Get Real
MonoNeon is back, with some really crisp fills, sometimes doubled with the keys. A descending chord progression that builds on the prechorus until the chorus jumps in with full drum and bass. Two keyboard solos and a Sam Gendel sax solo flesh out the rest of the song.
11. Crash The Car
The "big ballad" of the album. Starts off with snapped fingers and the Driveway Choir and it builds up from there. Wilkes back on bass (which based on their styles, was the right choice), lots of the 1-5-1 movements up and down....I'm sure there's a better way to describe that kind of bass line but I use it a lot. As the song progresses its obvious they wanted kind of a building "wall of sound" thing and they do that well...Paul Cornish with some great right hand octaves, and then the downstairs strings come in on a break as the choir swells. Then David Binney comes in and does a great alto sax solo, more conventional than what you might expect from Sam Gendel, but perfectly fitting the mood of the song, and adding to everything, the brass section in the kitchen starts up, bringing the song to a climax before Jacob Mann walks the chord progression out on the synth alone.
All in all a great album and I'm looking forward to seeing them live...tomorrow, as it happens!
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