Red Knife Lottery

Soiled Soul & Rapture

[3.5/5]

Milwaukee’s Red Knife Lottery know a thing or two about patience. They released a promising debut EP, So Much Drama, in 2005 and took a few years to develop this, their first full-length. Soiled Soul & Rapture continues RKL’s penchant for hyper-kinetic dance-punk jams dominated by sharktooth-sharp guitar riffs and Ashley Chapman’s unhinged vocals. Their music swings between Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ shattered pop and the Blood Brothers’ noisy fits, including non-sequitur moments–a bluesy shuffle here (the end of “Hip Bruisers”), a baroque waltz there (“Holy Skirts”).



While the musicians make a compelling caterwaul, Chapman gives the group their twisted personality. Past comparisons to Karen O aren’t unwarranted, though Chapman possesses a more richly feral voice. She packs a dynamic punch, shifting from ear-splitting screams to soulful wails. Her lyrics depict a lurid world of defiant though flawed protagonists, scurrilous shadow dwellers and damaged individuals. Though Chapman includes a welcome feminist slant, she adopts a narrative style that lends a storybook feel to the lyrics. Look at “Moral Fixation,” for example: A generic line like, "Boys and girls unite," is forgiven with, "She only feels beautiful when she’s starving/And she’s only happy when she is full.”



The problem with the contemporary glut of young bands steeped in similarly agitated music is that they neuter themselves. Their rage sounds like its wrapped in cellophane, their songs like each was plucked from sterile supermarket shelves. Red Knife Lottery supersede genre restrictions and display a welcome disregard for commercial constraints with the wild, unique and carefully crafted Soiled Soul & Rapture. (UPRISING) Casey Boland



GO DOWNLOAD: “Junkie Jazz”