Yr Knives Announce Debut Album 'Begin Yr Singing': Hear "Fear&Trimbling"

"Post-rock" can describe several quite different subgenres, but whatever the term means to you, Yr Knives are doing it somewhere on their debut single.

The Chicago supergroup is the brainchild of composer and arranger Paul Karner, though he's not actually in the band. His idea for two guitars pursuing separate visions independently on the same track brought together Milwaukee-based Andrew Trim (Hanami, Retroreflector) and Brian J Sulpizio (Health&Beauty) for a recording project, which sowed the seeds of Yr Knives. They completed the lineup with bassist Douglas McCombs of Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day plus Quin Kirchner, an in-demand jazz and rock drummer.

The result is familiar yet surprising music steeped in the Chicago post-rock tradition, where rock, jazz, electronic, classical, and avant-garde sounds have been colliding in fascinating ways for decades. And like much of that Chicago music, you can trace back influence to 1970s Germany too. Their specific blend of intellectual rigor and rocking-the-fuck-out is extremely pleasing to me. It makes perfect sense that these guys have toured with the Messthetics, and that some of their stated touchstones include Sonny Sharrock, Crazy Horse, Albert Ayler, Erik Satie, and Television.

Yr Knives will release their first album Begin Yr Singing in October via Western Vinyl. Its lead single "Fear&Trimbling" is out now, and it rules. Beginning with a funky bass line from McCombs, the song soon spirals into a tangle of discordant guitar sounds, sometimes in tandem, sometimes venturing out on their own chaotic journeys. It's very much in keeping with the music of Tortoise, heady and abrasive yet funky and approachable, with some mathy aggression in the riffs and formidable oomph in the rhythm section. Then, near the end, a string arrangement by Karner sends "Fear&Trimbling" in a much more emotionally charged direction, almost like the graceful beauty of a Sigur Rós song is swallowing up the noisy groove.

It's spectacular to witness, so witness it below.