Yr Knives Begin Yr Singing album, Digi Mart USA News (Chicago): Yr Knives’ Begin Yr Singing is a heavy and mesmerizing debut record that crystallizes Chicago’s post-rock scene and introduces an exceptionally gifted band, according to a review published by PopMatters.
Yr Knives is a guitar-centric Chicago quartet that began as an idea from composer and arranger Paul Karner, who wanted to bring two very different guitar voices together on a recording of his own music. The guitarists, Andrew Trim, known for Hanami and Retroreflector, and Brian J.
Sulpizio, of Health & Beauty, are already friends and collaborators. They developed their parts separately before bringing in bassist Douglas McCombs, of Tortoise and Eleventh Dream Day, and drummer Quin Kirchner, who received praise for his 2020 solo album Shadows and the Light.
The writing for the album began around 2022, with the two guitarists shaping their parts over occasional sessions before bringing them to the rhythm section. Trim described the group’s hybrid style on Bandcamp as “a searching music, asking questions” and “not always answering them,” citing influences including Sonny Sharrock, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Albert Ayler, Erik Satie, and Television.
The band tracked the record live in one room at a Chicago studio, producing a large, expansive sound that often recalls King Crimson at their heaviest.
The album opens tentatively with “Trimnopedie,” a low-key sequence in an odd time signature that gradually builds as the guitars move from separate, intertwining parts to occasional harmonious unison. “Stretch Bath” follows with a rumbling start driven by Kirchner’s drumming, before a pummeling twin-guitar riff takes over and occasionally shifts into distorted, ballad-tempo soloing with a strong Crazy Horse influence.
The ambitious “Fear & Trimbling” navigates intricate math-rock rhythms, suggesting Horse Lords with a stronger guitar focus. Karner adds a string arrangement, with Rachel Brown on violin and Erin Rafferty on viola, providing atonal yet elegant friction.
The more unhinged “Double A (Start Yr Singing),” dedicated to the late free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, offers an off-kilter cacophony reminiscent of Captain Beefheart, with melodic guitar figures floating above McCombs and Kirchner’s manic runs.
“These Chords” serves as the most directly jazz-leaning piece on the record, quiet and subtle, offering a respite from the dissonant roar before it. The album closes with its longest track, “White Gladys,” which rides an easy groove, incorporates elements of Krautrock, and features improvised bass clarinet and alto saxophone from Jason Stein and Mai Sugimoto, respectively, both bandmates of Trim in Hanami.
Sulpizio explains in the album’s press materials that “two of them come up as rock and roll players, two as jazz players, and the music lives in how closely they listen across those languages.” Yr Knives, according to the review, is a group with considerable potential, much of which is on display on this debut.
