Aidan Knight - Small Reveal
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| Aidan Knight - Small Reveal |
More fucking Canadians?!?
Seriously? What are they doing over there, just farming kids with good hair in
to some kind of musical boot camp where they only get released when they've
recorded one decent album? Whatever it is, I wholeheartedly approve if Aidan
Knight is anything to go by. The latest in an increasingly long line of quality
Canadian musicians starts of this album with the intensely mellow and wistful
'Dream Team' which is the perfect track to soundtrack a film like Juno 2 - if
such a film were to exist. Things get a little livelier on 'A Mirror' as things
get a little more Flaming Lips with chugging bass lines pushing the acoustic
melodies along at a steady pace under the Evan Dando-esque vocals of Mr Knight.
'Singer Songwriter' returns to the mellow theme but this time adds in some
slabs of synth and a healthy dollop of lap steel just to add to the atmosphere.
There then follows the first of three 'interludes' under the title 'Figure I
(Emmerson)' (the others are not Lake and Palmer before you ask) which is just
sound absent minded guitar noodling but it fits in with the ambience so I'm not
gonna bitch about it.
The stutteringly gentle acoustic
riff of 'You Will See The Good In Everyone' grows in to a disjointed but
beautiful melody that, if this were classical music, would depict the first
faltering steps of Frankenstein's monster or similar. 'The Master's Call' has a
sombre piano melody that could be Rufus Wainwright in particularly reflective
mood or E from Eels at his depressive best while 'Skip' is a Muse-esque piece
of symphonic space electro pop with barely mumbled vocals gently singing you to
sleep as you enter the cryogenic chamber. The next interlude follows, 'Figure
II (Superior)' (the name of a lake, so close), which is largely horn based but
only 37 seconds long and then we're straight in to 'Creatures Great &
Small' - a song full of the quiet determination you feel as you watch dawn
breaking after you've been up all night arguing with your soon to be ex. Piano,
strings, bass and those soft vocals all intertwine with muted urgency and a
sense of what might be around the corner if you just have enough to courage to
listen to your own instincts for once in your life.
'Figure III (Protection)' is the
longest of the three interludes and is a string based melody of sinister intent
with some carefully chosen piano notes lingering in the background. The album
closes with 'Margaret Downe' with Knight hauntingly telling a folk story with
simple but oh so human lines like "I guess she was a dentist before she
fell in love" and "We raised a couple children but we lost a little
girl". Aidan Knight and his troupe of musicians are not in the business of
making party music, that's a given, but what they do create is heart achingly
beautiful stuff and not to be overlooked just because it isn't beating its own
chest about how good it is. Sometimes it really is the quiet ones you have to
watch....or, in this case, listen to.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/aidanknightmusic/info
Live Dates:
11th April - Music Hall Of Williamsburg, Brooklyn
16th April - Sebright Arms, London
17th April - L'Espace B, Paris
23rd April - Merkker, Baden
24th April - PMK, Innsbruck
25th April - Spielboden, Dornbirn
27th April - ORF Radiokulturhaus, Vienna
28th April - Hauskonzerte.com, Munich
29th April - Societatstheater, Dresden
30th April - Muzclub, Nuremberg