Shonen Knife’s Re-Cut is a recreation of their 90s classic: Let’s Knife. They add a new level of creativity and richness to the sound, contrasting with the grainy, DIY fun of the original.
In nineteen eighties Osaka, a bored youth sought to upend her own life through music. Naoko Yamano loved classic rock ‘n’ roll and British punk in a time where those her age where rocking out to Zeppelin and Sabbath. Determined, she put up an advert looking for people to start a band on her kitchen fridge; her sister: Atsuko, and best friend: Michie, took to her cause and Shonen Knife was formed. With little musical experience but brimming with punk spirit, what they went on to do introduced underground art to an international audience.
Their album: Let’s Knife was the glittering DIY breakthrough that did this.
Let’s Knife sounds like the short’n’sweet-pop-punk of Ramones, stuffed with the overwhelming positivity of the sixties. The album’s subject matter goes from the poor endangered Bison, to a song about levitating Jelly beans, to a (rather serious) song about fishing. It all means nothing but a good time, and that is what the record brings.
The album’s success was famously due to Nirvana. In 1992 Kurt Cobain revealed his obsession with the Japanese trio, calling them ‘his favourite band’ and asking them to tour with him. For some crazy reason, Shonen Knife had never heard of Nirvana but eagerly cashed in on the opportunity. They quickly stitched together: Let’s Knife out of their best songs, recording them in English and went to America.
Its legacy is how, in a pre-internet world, their music created a connection between Japan and the West. Popularising punk and rock ‘n’ roll in Japan and introducing Japanese music to a wide audience of nineties kids.
So why remake something, that made such a big splash, thirty years later?
Well, on Re-Cut the songs are cleaner. ‘Riding on the Rocket’, for example, the awesome opener about a dance party on Pluto, is a different experience between the two versions. The original’s gritty guitar riff is replaced with a clear and defined sound. The song is now put together and hi-fi, Naoko and the band are undeniably better musicians too. They are still going strong but the remake does suffer because of this. They lose an indescribable DIY substance that made the originals sound so authentic and punk.
But Re-Cut does a lot in its own right. The lovely track ‘Ah, Singapore’, an ode to the country, now features more emotional and subtle vocal from Naoko. The aforementioned ‘Flying Jelly Attack’ is reimagined from a melodic pop song to an incredible overcharged garagey one. Many of the songs, like the classic track ‘Burning Farm’ benefit from more lush instrumentation than the originals. Their is a lot to love here if you are a Shonen Knifer, many songs on the album a clear products of a Band with decades of songwriting and playing.
It is incredibly cool that an all female punk band could revisit their material forty years later and rethink it in a new and creative way. While the magic of the original can never be captured again, Re-Cut has its own merits. I highly recommend both Let’s Knife and Let’s Knife Re-Cut if you want to hear songs about Cats and Pot Cleaners.
Let’s Knife Re-Cut is released on Good Charamel Records.
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Article by: Laurie Green
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