Religious Knives
Resin

[No Fun; 2008]

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Styles: the opposite of surf-rock
Others: Psychic Ills, U.S. Maple, NNCK, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Sun City Girls
Links: Religious Knives - No Fun

In a land far, far from the confines of the A-A-B-A song format lies a different form of organization: The Mantra. Religious Knives mine this never-ending pit for all it’s worth, digging greedily until there’s little room left for human life.

Such is Resin, a thick, smoky song cycle you won’t be able to scrape from your mind. Replacing tight snares and tinny high hats with ominous toms, recognizable instruments with tricked-out organ and guitar ruckus, Religious Knives tear tickets at the entryway of a scrappy mess only a mother could love. Luckily for them, indie folk are feeling maternal when it comes to experimental drone-psych.

Why shouldn’t they? Albums like Resin are delivering all the goods you can’t get at your multinational conglomerate. Ironically, a few of these tunes, with their organs aflame, skirt dangerously close to “Five to One”-era Doors territory (vocals, even), proving that no matter how askew the Knives trudge, they — and their peers, for that matter — still aren’t really that removed from the folks making money.

But that’s neither here nor there, really; no one ever raked in much money from such peripheral explorations. And yet records like this make a mark, however subtle, upon the launches that follow. That’s one of the sweetest aspects of peering just a little deeper into the void — from certain vantage points, a small ripple can turn into a big wave, even if the general population doesn’t notice the inch of water drenching their shoe souls.

1. In the Back 2. Luck 3. Everything Happens Twice 4. Growth 5. The Sun 6. Twelve Bottles and One White Cone, Part 1 7. Twelve Bottles and One White Cone, Part 2 8. In the Back