Labels: Its You! Records/Polar Summer
Formats: Lathe/Digital
Release Date: 10 Jun 2017
Tracklist:
1. Deceased
2. Mutilation
3. Power Supply
4. Basement
5. Point?
6. Useless
7. City
8. Suicide is not a bad thing
I'm starting to actively hunt down physical copies of releases that I've reviewed over the years. I own quite a few, but nowhere near as much as I should. The owning and reviewing paths cross this evening, as I once again give my attention to the Polar Summer discography. This evening, it's the turn of the self-titled EP from Russian powerviolence band Khnutt, which was released back in January 2017.
As well as being digitally released, it saw a limited 7" lathe release by both Its You! Records and Polar Summer (15 copies each from both labels). I was lucky enough to be able to track down a copy via the expansive distro of German label Dingleberry Records. A quick fact that I just learned about Khnutt too is that the band includes members of Lora.
The 7” format is perfect for this release, as it’s a quick one. Opening with ‘Deceased’, this sounds much more like a powerviolence EP. The sludgy riffs and tempos lead into blasting, violent hardcore and the vocals sound deeper in tone than I was expecting. One thing you can’t escape from with this release is the ringing feedback. It’s only briefly used on ‘Mutilation’ but it grabs your focus as Khnutt grind their way through the next fourteen seconds. It’s very much in the vein of bands like Nausea, Reproach and Jesus Cröst.
I’ve forgotten how hard it was to try and live review music this fast (though you’d think I’d know it off by heart by now!). ‘Power Supply’ rages with short bursts of violence that sandwich a sludgy mid-section (if that’s the right way to describe it). There’s a very old-school feel to it all, which I like. ‘Basement’ takes a real blackened turn with the roaring vocals. They tower over the instrumentation for a bit, before Khnutt get noisy once again. Khnutt’s music has an edge to it that makes it very exciting and hard to turn off.
Talking of being hard to turn off, ‘Point?” Is over before you even get chance to think about it! This song is about as chaotic as Khnutt’s sound gets, with its flailing percussion and scratchy bass. ‘Useless’ is double the length of ‘Point?’ and it benefits from stop/start instrumentation, which is used to great effect. The vocals are as fierce as they have been throughout too, leaving no room for niceties.
From the short blasts of the EP so far, ‘City’ couldn’t be more different. Initially, Khnutt break out with mathcore before it gives way to some rap and spoken-word samples soon after. Even with those samples, the recording still maintains the slightly grainy/DIY sound that gives the release such heart. On EP closer ‘Suicide is not a bad thing’, hardcore groove flows into proto-crust blackness and with one last bass riff, it all goes silent.
This was actually the first of two EPs that Khnutt released in 2017. It’s a snapshot in time from a band that was very productive but somewhat elusive. I love it and I do wonder if anybody will give their work the discography treatment in the future. I can’t help but feel excited every time I listen to this and thankful that it exists. Be inquisitive about music and you’ll be rewarded.
Physical copies don't come up for sale very often, but you can stream and grab the EP as a name-your-price download from Khnutt below:-
No real social media presence to speak of unless you're on vk.com (if their profile still exists). Same for Its You! Records.
Polar Summer - https://polarxsummer.bandcamp.com
