The Knife – Silent Shout

A few years ago, The Knife recorded a song called Heartbeats. It was a spangled slice of electropop, glad-sad and catchy, and a Swedish hit. But now it's 2006. Though Heartbeats is topping charts worldwide, it's not the original version on the radio in Ireland and California.

No, Jose Gonzalez's acoustic guitar rendition exploded across the Western world and The Knife holed up in their home studio, brother and sister working with a new and darker palette. Silent Shout is at once claustrophobic and liberating, a music for cellars and starry skies. Karin's voice twists like a trapped ghost, the beats pound and rattle, synths tumble and scatter. It's microhouse gone sing-along, electrohouse gone icy, pop music gone lunar. Forget that – it's haunted house. And it's fucking brilliant. Kelley Polar in a pas-de-deux with Bjork; The Bee Gees teaching Cristian Vogel to strut. Swedes making sounds with their computers. [Sean Michaels]