Knower dropped a fresh album today and it is the only thing I care about the only thing I want to listen to the only thing I want to talk about !! please listen to the new Knower album and consider buying it if you vibe with it bc they are entirely self produced and deserve so so much more love and attention than they have received. they are out here bringing insane raw talent and years of perfected skill and their own in-house orchestra and redefining modern funk and people need to care!!!
Louis Cole might be best known as one-half of the jazz- and funk-tinged avant-pop duo Knower, but he also does his own thing: The multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter’s sixth solo LP, Quality Over Opinion, dropped in 2022, and last year he put out an album of unreleased tracks, the aptly titled Some Unused Songs. On Friday night, he closed out his winter tour at a welcoming Brooklyn Steel.
Photos courtesy of Ken Grand-Pierre | www.kenamiphoto.com
I just recently found out about KNOWER, and I can't get enough of them now.
This video is from a few years ago, but they just put out a new music video in the past few weeks. YouTube kept recommending it to me and I kept not watching it and then I thought "ok, maybe the machine learning is on to something..."
... but. Maaaan. KNOWER. Incredibly virtuosic high-execution funky jazz. Really silly video edits. Somehow super catchy. If you like... jazz and prog rock and iwrestledabearonce and Animals As Leaders and people who are apparently good friends with Thundercat and videos where many of the musicians are stuffed into an awkward-looking hallway space, you'll almost certainly love Knower.
BONUS VIDEO. This one is even catchier, and features a full horn section in the living room and a choir in the driveway.
I've been a Louis Cole fan since I think 2007. I wasn't a BIG "clowncore" person, but I got it. Cole speaks a very specific dialect of jazz fusion that I am super fluent in. it's got layers and geeky details and it's very dense. NOT light listening. For the most part, Louis Cole songs force you to engage. KNOWER is his band, lead by him and Genevieve Artadi.
This year they released "KNOWER FOREVER", a new album, and it's WILD. This album doesn't care about reaching mass audience. It iss made for people who like KNOWER. If you like these musicians, you will like them in this set. Not sure what else to tell you. I love it.
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This video describes the experience. Yes, they record in a house. with a full horn section down in the living room and an actual chorus of vocalists outside the garage.
This has been the house/studio format that they've been working at for a minute. the best use of the whole house, in my opinion, is Louis' "F it Up":
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The new album is available wherever you stream music, but if you listen and like it, you can buy it over at bandcamp.