Ill Winds: “Knut”

The press release for the new split tape from Berlin-based DIY acts Ill Winds and Moon Wheel is a meditation on human knowledge that mentions documentarian Paul Otlet, ancient Greek artists Zeuxis and Parrhasius, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and novelist William Kittredge. This being the case, you wouldn’t be wrong to assume the music on said tape is conceptually complex and overly analytical, not what you’d describe as “catchy” or “immediate” in any way. And, as it turns out, you would also be mostly wrong.

As soon as the first chords to opening track “Knut” hit, all thoughts about Truth and Existence, and other words that require capital letters fly out the window entirely. What’s left is a post-punk track that Wire could have knocked out in late ‘70s, or what those early Warsaw demos might have become had Martin Hannett not been so involved. There’s paranoid guitar that jabs like an icepick, a catchy bassline high in the mix, and the requisite drowned-out, vaguely ominous vocals. If “Knut” does embody the difficulty of representing human knowledge, then it’s possible we missed the point. Then again, Lacan was the guy who wrote “the reason we go to poetry is not for wisdom, but for the dismantling of wisdom.” If we’re talking about rock ‘n roll, that sounds just about right.

The lll Winds/Moon Wheel split tape is out now on on Noisekölln

Written by Nathan Reese