The Book of Knots are something of a supergroup, consisting of musicians whose ranks include Pere Ubu, Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Tin Hat Trio and Sparklehorse; and a pedigree like that yields only the most polarized of sounds. The group’s second album Traineater is an alternately cacophonous and strangely beautiful record, deriving its inspiration from the industrial factory towns of America, such as Cleveland and Detroit. As such, the album sounds like the varied machines within a factory, some frightening and dangerous, some precise and well oiled. “View From the Watertower,” with vocals from Carla Bozulich, falls squarely in the former, a beastly, menacing din. Yet Tom Waits’ addition to “Pray” makes for a bizarre hybrid of junkyard band and beat poetry. Between these freakish curiosities, however, Carla Kihlstedt adds an angelic quality to the sweetly haunting title track, showing that even beneath the plumes of smoke, there are humans running the show.
~ Jeff Terich
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