Yr Knives, the guitar-centric Chicago quartet, began as an idea from composer and arranger Paul Karner: two very different guitar voices, seemingly unrelated on paper, brought together on a recording of his own music. The guitarists playing those parts are Andrew Trim (Hanami, Retroreflector) and Brian J. Sulpizio (Health & Beauty), already friends and collaborators, who worked on their parts separately, eventually bringing in two other musicians deeply steeped in Chicago’s various music scenes, bassists Douglas McCombs (Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day) and drummer Quin Kirchner, a heavily sought-after player who received praise for his 2020 solo album Shadows and the Light.
The result is Begin Yr Singing, a heavy, mesmerizing debut record that crystallizes Chicago’s post-rock scene and introduces an exceptionally gifted band.
The writing for Begin Yr Singing began around 2022, with the resulting sound bringing together two guitarists who shaped the guitar parts over occasional sessions before bringing them to the rhythm section. Trim described the curious hybrid musical style on Bandcamp as “a searching music, asking questions” and “not always answering them”, citing influences such as Sonny Sharrock, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Albert Ayler, Erik Satie, and Television. The whole group were tracked live in one room in a Chicago studio, and the sound is large and expansive, with the four instruments locking in with both complexity and brute force, often bringing to mind King Crimson at their heaviest, but with a variety of other styles and sensibilities at work as well.
The album begins somewhat tentatively, as “Trimnopedie” sees the quartet locking into a low-key sequence with an odd time signature. Still, the sound builds and rises over time, Trim and Sulpizio’s guitars moving from separate, intertwining parts to occasionally playing in harmonious unison, all the while bass and drums cooking. It’s an appropriately measured appetizer. “Stretch Bath”, however, begins with a four-piece rumble dominated by Kirchner’s storm of drums, before an absolutely pummeling twin-guitar riff forms the song’s DNA, occasionally veering off into distorted, ballad-tempo soloing (the Crazy Horse influence is strong here).
The sound continues to grow with the multifaceted, ambitious “Fear & Trimbling”, as Yr Knives navigate an intricate puzzle of math-rock rhythms, suggesting Horse Lords, but with more of a guitar focus. Building on this framework, Karner adds a unique string arrangement, providing atonal yet decidedly elegant friction, courtesy of Rachel Brown on violin and Erin Rafferty on viola.
The more unhinged aspects of Begin Yr Singing come into focus on the off-kilter, almost Captain Beefheart-like cacophony of “Double A (Start Yr Singing)”, dedicated to the late free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, whose influence seems to spread across the entire record. Deeply melodic guitar figures and solos float above McCombs and Kirchner’s manic runs and fills.
As Begin Yr Singing begins to wind down, “These Chords” is introduced as the most directly jazz-leaning piece on the record, quiet and subtle, providing something of a respite from the dissonant roar that preceded it. Begin Yr Singing closes with the album’s longest song, “White Gladys”, which rides an easy groove and incorporates bits of Krautrock, featuring improvised bass clarinet and alto saxophone courtesy of Jason Stein and Mai Sugimoto, respectively (Trim’s bandmates in Hanami).
With four band members who bring various influences, Sulpizio explains in the album’s press materials that “two of them come up as rock and roll players, two as jazz players, and the music lives in how closely they listen across those languages”. Yr Knives are a group with endless possibilities, many of them on full display on their debut album.