Bottled Out Of Eden brings London based Octuplet Knifeworld a step closer to finding their purpose in life. This third act contains a forceful optimism that has the moves like Zappa. Blending poetic musings on life, love and the universe with utilitarian cadences that have been driven wild on the shores of purgatory. However is it a case of too many freaks in the circus?
A tale of eight friends who bugger off to the Pyrenees to find their true strength by playing ambitious music has the posturing of a sequel to School Of Rock sub-headed Fieldtrip, featuring the tamer Benedict Cumberbatch as he conducts the group on magic. However always flourishing and never dull, the atypical and dreamlike hypnagogia Knifeworld transports on Bottled Out Of Eden lightens the spirit but it does little to excite it. The layers of intensely orchestrated jazz applied with a distinctly indie feel freshens the emphasis on posthumous arrangements through its equity but only serves to make each piece louder.
Where the psychedelic progressiveness of the soundtrack suspends the ego it lets the imagination wander yet when the prose returns to set the trajectory it’s as if a great idea has been stolen and repurposed. Handing over to the narrative objectives after seducing us with some beautiful riffs spun from the tips of a traditional troubadour. Bottled Out Of Eden is fantastic, it’s coherent and unafraid to play, but behind its wistful prose lies a richer sound. A trove that only the listener has the key to unlock.
8/10
