Over on slangtang.com, I’ve posted a podcast of my recent interview with Karin Dreijer Andersson aka Fever Ray. Here’s the info & link:

Following the release of their critically acclaimed and award-winning album ‘Silent Shout’, Swedish dark-electro duo The Knife took time out to pursue their own individual projects. Olaf Dreijer worked on an original soundtrack for the opera ‘Tommorow In A Year’ by Danish performance group Hotel Pro Forma. His sister, Karin Dreijer Andersson, instead opted for a solo album, under the name Fever Ray. Whilst occupying similar sonic territories to The Knife, ‘Fever Ray’ introduced a personal and intimate side to Karin that was hitherto unseen.

In this Interview Edition of the Slang Tang podcast series, Stu Buchanan talks to Karin about the Fever Ray project. Talking from her home in Sweden, Karin discusses the genesis of the project, her continuing exploration of electronic music and the impact of motherhood on her creative work.

DOWNLOAD: Slang Tang Interview Edition: Fever Ray

Subscribe to future podcasts via iTunes or similar Podcast program: feed://slangtang.libsyn.com/rss.

This interview with Fever Ray was originally broadcast on Disorient on Sydney’s FBi Radio.

The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson in her solo Fever Ray guise releases her new album digitally today from Klicktrack and iTunes (physical formats follow, oddly, in over two months on March 21st). [See previous post for info on this project]. The cover art brings to mind comic artist Charles Burns – indeed, it may well be Burns, given that The Knife’s ‘Silent Shout’ video was apparently deeply inspired by his work.

A 7″ single also drops shortly (Jan 27th) with remixes of the ‘If I Had A Heart’ single, including this version from my latest obsession, Fuck Buttons (playing in Sydney this week, including an appearance at the Nick Cave curated All Tomorrows Parties on Cockatoo Island).

Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart (Fuck Buttons Remix) | mp3

img | origamadon

The Knife’s ‘Silent Shout’ remains as good as it sounded right from day one – dark, fucked up, dramatic gothtronica, that is in turns both desperately sad and perversely beautiful. ‘We Share Our Mother’s Health’ remains one of the most bleak and morose electro-pop songs yet committed to tape, but with her Knife offshoot project Fever Ray, Karin Dreijer Andersson seems determined to plunge still further into the darkness. The lead single “If I Had A Heart” (released today on The Knife’s Rabid Records via 7Digital, Beatport and Klicktrack) borrows much of the vocal styles that Karin employed on ‘Silent Shout’ – the screwed, wound-down slow-mo treatment, dropped here in tandem with Karin’s untreated voice. As a precursor for the self-titled album due on March 21st, and a proposed live show being prepared in tandem, it offers those with a Knife-shaped hole in their heart some hope to lean into.

If I had a heart, I’d post the single itself (which you can stream on Fever Ray’s Murdochspace and I urge you to shed your coin for), but in place of that treat, here’s a voxless edit as an entree for the main course.

Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart (Instrumental Edit) | mp3