The Knife - 'Silent Shout - Deluxe Edition' (Brille) Released 02/07/07

‘Silent Shout’ is something of a classic within modern electronic circles (indeed, it was this very site’s album of 2006), so this deluxe three-disc reissue, the sort of lavish canonisation normally reserved for cast-iron genre touchstones significantly older, should really feel like just another rushed cash-in at worst, or slightly presumptuous at the very least. That it doesn’t is down to the fact that this collection expands on the original record with as much care and intelligence as recent special editions of the likes of ‘Daydream Nation’ and ‘The Holy Bible’, to give two worthy examples.

The irony that The Knife’s unnerving minimal palette was first introduced to a wider audience by Jose Gonzalez’s comfortably revisionist take on ‘Heartbeats’ was also perhaps not far from the mind when this compilation was first mooted; were anyone still looking to investigate the myth behind these two inscrutable Swedish songwriters, a sort of Kraftwerk for the ‘war on terror’ age, then this set would be the perfect place to begin. We’re certainly a long way from ‘Veneer’.

The original album ‘Silent Shout’ remains as quietly disturbing as it was when first released back in the early months of last year. From the opening throb of the title-track, which marries streamlined techno with shattering imagery of Kafka-like proportions (“Yes in a dream all my teeth fell out / A cracked smile and a silent shout”), to the affecting ‘The Captain’ (if Karin’s distorted vocals don’t get you, the escalating bleeps and wash of sound almost certainly will), The Knife’s third release not only flipped the relative accessibility of the group’s previous studio album ‘Deep Cuts’ on its head, but proved that electronic music at its peak is still capable of reaching an emotional complexity that many of its detractors, who hear nothing but cold shards of noise and the supposedly empty soul of processors, still refuse to acknowledge. It’s this depth that ensures ‘Silent Shout’ will endure, and be rightfully chalked up alongside the likes of ‘Homogenic’ and ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ (two significant influences), regardless of whatever special editions may be cooked up by way of commemoration.