Schizofrantik: The Knight On The Shark

Often a band name means absolutely nothing. However I'd suggest that the moniker Scizofrantik tells you all you need to know about this band, as do song titles such as "The Human Slaughter Tango", "Nazis On LSD" and "The Knight On The Shark Beside The Ship Which Is Not Sunken Yet", from which this album takes its truncated name. Formed as long ago as 1998, the band themselves feel that The Knight On The Shark is a significant leap from their previous 2011 album Oddities. I've never encountered this act before so for obvious reasons can't really comment on whether that's true. However I can tell you that TKOTS is an accomplished, varied, eclectic, yet focused set of songs unafraid to stretch out, lay their wares for all to see and then add another twelve components � at least!

Avant-garde is an apt description, yet unlike some bands who fall out of that tree, I can't say that any of this album feels "for the sake of it", or intended to intentionally throw the listener off the scent. Instead each veering of direction and approach strikes as calculated, if never clinical. Prog, Fusion, Metal, Jazz, Kitchen Sink, Small Plastic Man On A Shark, it's all here and then some, with an influence list as long as a bit of string (just how long is that bit of string....), although they don't all make themselves evident. However Primus does, as does mid period Zappa, but then there's heavier work at play here too and also some areas which suddenly appear in the realms of light, breezy and positively melodic. When the mood takes Schizofrantik they can be downright accessible, but that mood doesn't appear often and the likes of "Liquid Light" is all the better for the frantic (sorry...) grating themes which slide into view and then scrape out of earshot at incredible speed.

Martin Mayrhofer sings, but then he also screams, wails, shouts, insists, recounts his very anger at being and whispers sinisterly in your left pocket. All the while thrashing his under caressed guitar into a state of splinters and shards of plastic and being less assuming on keys, deciding the best approach is to veer away from keeping up and instead adding colour, breadth and lubricant for the more wild approach. Drummer Andy Lind hands outs cards to advertise his one man demolition service and Peter Braun is the bass player.

In the end, this is a well realised jump into weird and wonderful from a band as comfortable using laid back themes to ease their point across, as they are howling to the moon. Join them and you're likely to be equally seduced by the rabid, purposeful, intended insanity.

Track Listing
1. The Knight On The Shark Beside The Ship Which Is Not Sunken Yet
2. Marching Through The Meadow
3. The Human Slaughter Tango
4. Nazis On LSD
5. Psychic Scars
6. Liquid Light
7. Thanx Dog

Added: January 18th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Schizofrantik on Gentle Art Of Music
Hits: 2280
Language: english

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