Knifeworld – Bottled Out of Eden

Knifeworld’s Kavus Torabi has never been afraid to use the crawlspace between prog, psychedelia and full-blown, overt pop, only to fill it with the expansive, the melody-driven and the just plain quirky. The band’s third LP is no exception – imagine XTC collaborating with Captain Beefheart whilst slurping on a mojito or two, and you might get some idea.

Now an eight-piece, the band’s myriad instrumentation here is deliberately aligned to spontaneity; recorded in just nine days, there’s a fresh, snappy feel embedded across tracks such as High/Aflame and I Am Lost. Admirably, Knifeworld feel little compulsion to drown the audience under the weight of an octet’s musicianship.

Neither is this all up-tempo hijinx; both Foul Temple and Lowered into Necromancy offer reflective moments amidst the complex time signatures and rhythm section playfulness. The overreaching effect is one of pleasantly drifting through vogue and template, the subtle application of guitar, sax and keys adding to the mood. [Duncan Harman]