Het tweede album van Use Knife, État Coupable (VIERNULVIER Records, 28 maart 2025), kreeg recensies, interviews, werd op de radio gedraaid en werd genoemd door The Wire, The Quietus, BBC6's New Music Fix, KEXP, NTS, Inverted Audio, METAL Magazine, Ma3azef, A Closer Listen, Radio alHara, Hyper Real (Opium Hum), HUMO, Nowamuzyka, Rinse France, Songlines Magazine, Dansende Beren, Out Out, Wonderland/Radio 1, Klara Late Night Shift, Full Moon Magazine, Stereogum, Creem, Recorder, Forced Exposure, whypeopledance, Norman Records, Organ Thing, Son of Marketing, Polifonia (Polityka), White Light/White Heat, Ruptured Music, Roadburn playlist, Kalporz, New, Belgian & Good, Lyl Radio, KIOSK Radio, Gimic Radio, Radio Student, Bruzz, Outside Noise, Radio Scorpio, Blow Up, White Light/White Heat, A Jazz Noise, Canalb, Utility Fog, Majjem Radio, Rhythm Passport, Indiestyle, Monolith Cocktail, Rai Radio 3 Battiti, Hipersonica, Dublin Digital Radio, Radio FM4 Austria, Doppelpunkt, ... Hieronder vind je enkele citaten uit de recensies:

The Wire

Coming up alongside the news of ceasefire violations in Gaza, the track underscores the futility of global attention and the irony of widespread awareness without meaningful action. It openly positions the Palestinian plight as representative of the broader Arab struggle for recognition as human beings amid racism and condemnation. (...) “Freedom, Asshole”, featuring Nihiloxica’s Spooky-J on drums, channels late post-punk aesthetics. Choppy breaks and distorted vocals evoke protest chants shouted through a megaphone. voices alternate between singing, proclamation and emergent calls, layered and distorted, capturing the frustrating redundancy of repeated declarations, elucidating the chaos and disorder while somehow evoking collective power. 

Lees meer

The Quietus

Use Knife’s work, it seems, is to remind us that Max Weber’s idea of the state commanding a monopoly of violence is one that plays out daily on those who don’t fit, a notion that directly counter our fond imaginations of what liberal democracy is. As Heeren sings on the dizzying title track, if you just look, these matters are “out in the open”. État Coupable is heady, charged, sometimes fractious, but compelling stuff.

Lees meer

Inverted Audio

Videopremière voor Freedom, Asshole (feat. Spooky-J)

A furious synthesis of post-industrial decay and Mesopotamian ritual, ‘État Coupable’ unspools like a fevered hallucination of modern displacement and ancestral memory, dragging scorched electronics and spectral percussion into its tempest. Spanning seven tracks, the album portrays a dance between agony and transcendence, post-trauma manifesting as an exorcism of jagged noise, where post-punk tension dissolves into a mirage of distorted tradition.

Lees meer

METAL Magazine

Videopremière voor État Coupable (feat. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh)

The content of yet to be released single Kadhdhaab off the album, and its straightforward addressing of the world’s power structures, informs the meanings of État Coupable. Khadhdhaab speaks about the profound disappointment of youth as the ground crumbles beneath their feet. As children grow into young adults, they begin to see that the world is far from just, it is fractured by the forces of power and geopolitics. “We, the people, stand exposed and vulnerable in the open” add Use Knife.

Lees meer

Ma3azef 

Saif showcases his skills on the opening track, set to Georgina's rhythm, with its unusual scale in the electronic scene, delighting our ears with rhythmic combinations of tambourine, khashaba, riq, and darbuka. Saif's vocals are superb, and the synths and sax reflect the anxiety and fear that pervade the lyrics.

The trio continues in the same vein on the track "Liar," where Saif reveals the wide range of his voice with a performance brimming with emotion and shuddering, enhanced by the distorted rhythms and synth lines.

What distinguishes the album most is its strong attachment to the present moment, whether politically or aesthetically. It does not drift into a vision of the future that is outdated, nor into nihilism and escapism. There is a sense of community among the band members that is easily accepted by the listener, and a discourse rooted in the present.

Use Knife possesses the magic of rhythm, the skill of sound design, and the ability to construct tracks with a tight dynamic. The album also brings a fresh sound to the scene, and confirms that our region is full of musical treasures, and Saif Al-Qaisi is one of them.

Lees meer (Arabisch)

+ top new music:

The album is dominated by a political tone and a sense of anger toward Western policies, which the band successfully conveys musically through percussion and synth sounds brimming with distortion, resulting in highly dynamic tracks that combine quality composition with unbridled improvisation. This is a sonically rich album that is a fresh take on the electronic scene.

Lees meer (Arabisch)

+ eindejaarslijstje (Arabisch)

A Closer Listen

Belgian-Iraqi trio Use Knife resurrects the grand industrial tradition of pairing political indictment with intense percussion, producing an extremely danceable and meaningful record.

Lees meer

Rhythm Passport

Belgian-Iraqi trio Use Knife reimagine the traditional Iraqi lament “جي مالي والي” (Che Mali Wali – “What’s wrong with me?”) as a jagged, industrial invocation. Vocalist and percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy chants the refrain with raw urgency, threading it through distorted electronics, brittle drum patterns and Arabic percussion. It’s both a personal outcry and a defiant reclamation of cultural space.

Lees meer

HUMO

Humo’s oorstrelende tien: De allerbeste platen van het moment.

“Terwijl hun bekendste project Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat ergens stilletjes ligt te spinnen, verkennen Stef Heeren en Kwinten Mordijck met Use Knife de kronkelpaadjes van de electro, bijgestaan door de Iraakse percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy. Een broeierige, bij momenten apocalyptische plaat die de verrechtsing in de wereld aankaart.”

Full Moon Magazine

Freedom, Asshole is understood as a reproach to the West. The angry beat complements the lyrics about the dominance of this world—how it sets the rules, writes the history, judges from afar without understanding. A very powerful text criticizes ignorance and is baffled by the turning away of eyes. The Western world has the luxury of choice—it doesn’t have to look at suffering; it can simply turn off the TV. (...) The album recontextualizes traditional Arab sounds into a Western electronic environment. The authenticity of the vocals and percussion enriches the already powerful synthetic beats. Use Knife’s politics of connection are communicated both forcefully and vulnerably. Neither East nor West has been brought closer by globalization; feelings of fear and distance still persist. The trio calls for change—for more understanding.

Lees meer in Fullmoon Zine #169 5/2025 (Tsjechisch)

Gonzo (Circus)

‘État Coupable’ is een ritmisch solide en dansbaar album dat zich loswrikt van post-punk, en tegelijk flirt met tegendraadse elektronische pop. 

Nowamuzyka

“État Coupable” shakes, sometimes growls, and other times envelops us in a boundless whisper – it digs into the minds a multitude of forks, poses many question marks, without providing any answers. Use Knife transform into an increasingly stronger sound organism. With their new material, they have shown that they have a lot to share with the world, not only on a musical level, but also when it comes to words, which are full of emotional barbs, truths, helplessness and extraordinary sensitivity directed at a trembling reality that does not necessarily receive the same frequencies as the inner universe of Al-Qaissy and his friends. This is an album that you come back to for even more…

Lees meer (Pools)

Songlines Magazine

The latest release from Iraqi-Belgian outfit Use Knife, sees Saif Al-Qaissy, Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordijck plunging deeper into their fusions of European and Iraqi dance music to address the state of things. It’s a heavier move than their debut – gone are the synth-pop and new wave motifs, in their place come pulsing EBM and caustic production, leaving it as much Nurse with Wound as Nazem Al-Ghazali. Opener, ‘Demain Sera Mieux’ arrives with Al-Qaissy’s compelling vocals, driven by grinding electronics, galloping rhythms and brassy bursts from Heeren and Mordijck. Al-Qaissy’s percussive expertise shines on ‘Iraqi Drum Set’, as the multi-instrumentalist delivers turns on daf and raq, while ‘Freedom, Asshole’ is all juddering beats, distorted polemics and a feature from Nihiloxica drummer Spooky-J. ‘État Coupable (feat. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh)’ hears Heeren take to the mic, his bandmates bolstering his howls with bolshy 4/4 thumps and skittering synths. It’s an excoriating call to action from this increasingly compelling trio.

Lees meer in hun editie van juni 2025 

+ ‘Kadhdhaab’ was deel van hun selectie voor hun Top of the world cd van juni 2025:

Skittering percussion and slow horns build to a gloriously whirling and clattering, electro-heavy mash-up of Iraqi and European dance music, with vocals that will make your hair stand on end.

Dansende Beren

Deze nieuwe single bevat alle elementen die je van een Use Knife-song mag verwachten. Schokkerige elektronische pulsen stromen samen met ongeremde Arabische percussie en bezwerende gezangen tot een woelige rivier. Je voelt je steeds verder afglijden in de unieke stroom van pompende beats en wanordelijke synthsequenties. Plots, in het midden van de song, gaat alles over in een unieke en kalme ambient-soundscape waardoor het lijkt alsof je in een totaal andere wereld bent binnengedwaald. Het is heerlijk vertoeven in deze rustige bubbel. De invloed van Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is duidelijk aanwezig. Hier op zowel buzuq (een soort luit met een lange nek) als synth. Met deze nieuwe single krijg je twee keer waar voor je geld. Zeker de moeite!

Lees meer

Recorder

We know how well Arabic singing full of melismas fits into electronic music. Many dance versions of this pairing have become quite well-known, but Use Knife shows its dark side.

In the trio of singer-percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy, a refugee from Iraq, and two Belgian musicians, Kwinten Mordijck and Stef Heeren, in addition to Arabic percussion, metallic drums, dirty basses and EBM, acidic synths are played, and there is a lot of distortion. Despite the fact that this is a dark album, it is also a distinctly danceable and captivating one.

For the most part, songs that are more vocal and more rhythm-focused alternate; and the title track takes the listener's excitement and involvement to the peak – it's hard not to be angry with Al-Qaissy for dogmas! But after five minutes, the track suddenly turns into a depressing ambient, made more painful by the sound of the buzuq.

The distorted, overlapping vocal layers of the closing Che Mali Wali are both heavy and psychedelically uplifting – leaving open the question of whether there is a return to activism after falling from the peak. This ambiguous closing takes the album to a new level.

Lees meer

Kalporz / Monolith Cocktail

Two distant worlds: neither prevails over the other but a multifaceted rhythmic magma is created, between West and East. The opening track of État Coupable, the latest album by the trio mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem in My Heart), is paradigmatic in this sense: “Demain Sera Mieux”. In the four and a half minutes of the piece, a 10/6 time signature (popular in Iraq but also in Armenian and Turkish music) is grafted onto a vortex of synths. Or again: the vibrations, the industrial beats of a track like “Iraqi Drum Set” are also ignited by the daf percussion (i.e. a frame drum that is part of the musical tradition of the Middle East) and by the chaos of words, resulting from the sampling of the trio’s conversations on Iraqi instruments and their pronunciation. 

The sound discourse of Use Knife (the name comes from a line by Current 93, «the stars spell grammar or use knife») is sharp and in media res: there are no preambles, we get to the heart of an artistic creation that wants to become action.

Lees meer (in English)

Blow Up

A remarkable album, much better than the previous one: to keep an ear to.

Indiestyle

Waar in de beginjaren van de band je meer het gevoel had dat het om een bondgenootschap ging, krijg je tegenwoordig het gevoel dat Use Knife is uitgegroeid tot een band die hun visie en sound heeft gevonden. (...) Al-Qaissy heeft Irakese roots en heeft zijn eigen rugzak bij zich. Je voelt echter heel erg sterk doorheen de vocale passages van Al-Qaissy dat het Palestijnse lijden landsgrenzen overschrijdt en (bij hem) bepaalde wondes terug weer lijkt open maakt. Hoe het blaasinstrument tijdens de eerste minuten van ‘Kadhdhaab’ als een soort waarschuwingssignaal fungeert, is niet toevallig. Evenmin is de manier hoe de percussie op ‘Iraqi drum set’ bijna geweerschoten of zelfs artillerie na lijkt te bootsen.

Lees meer

Doppelpunkt

A magnificent, surprising album comes from the Belgian-Iraqi trio Use Knife, who released their debut, "The Shedding of Skin," in 2022, which I unfortunately overlooked, and last year the "Peace Carnival" EP on the Berlin Morphine outlet. On their new 7-track longplayer, "État Coupable" [viernulvier], culture and politics merge even more deeply with their sound. Vocalist and percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy, who fled Iraq due to the war, delivers an even more intense, pleading performance in Arabic, supported by the sharp, cracking electronic synth sounds and samples somewhere between EBM and industrial by Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordijck. Al-Qaissy tells the unavoidable story of freedom, responsibility, and the gap between Eastern and Western mentalities, and his message and vocals have become more prominent over the years—and rightly so. In addition to the electronics and percussion, there is also a saxophone and guests include Nihiloxica's Spooky-J and Jerusalem in My Heart's Radwan Ghazi Moumneh.

Lees meer (Duits)

Het eerste album van Use Knife, The Shedding of Skin (VIERNULVIER Records), kreeg recensies, interviews, werd op de radio gedraaid en werd genoemd door BBC6, Dusted Magazine, Resident Advisor, The Quietus, It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine, The Attic, Mixmag Mena, Mixmag Asia, Gonzo (Circus), A Closer Listen, White Light/White Heat, Radio alHara, VRTNWS, Polifonia (Polityka), Nowamuzyka, Stegi Radio, KIOSK Radio, Indiestyle, 3voor12, We Are Various, HHV Records, Turn Up The Volume, REMAIIN, Syrphe, Radio Raheem, Foxy Digitalis, CMU, Stadskanker, Blurred and obscured, Sterrenplaten, Phonofocus, Rebel Up, Urgent.fm, KEXP, Noods Radio, ...

The Quietus

Now, Heeren, Mordijck, and Al-Qaissy operate in a territory occupied by few. Instead of merely collecting and layering influences from the East and the West, they coalesce the disparate cultural and artistic strains into new expressions that belong to both worlds but are bound to neither of them.

Take the opening cut ‘Ptolemaic’, for example, which rides in on a pumping techno beat, only for its steady drive to be joyously broken up by polyrhythms constructed from looping doholas, kishbas, and other Arabic percussion instruments. Longing susurrations and manipulated bits of melismatic singing hang over this supremely danceable concoction of synthetic and organic sounds. These vocal lines provide a mournful undercurrent to the music before uniting in gorgeous singsong that bounces off the sparse accompanying instrumentation like an echo of a religious oration against walls.

Lees meer

+ Top 50 tracks of 2022

Resident Advisor

The Best Electronic Tracks of 2000-25 - 106: Use Knife - Ptolemaic

Use Knife are an Iraqi-Belgian trio intent on breaking the colonial space-time matrix. Their debut single, "Ptolemaic," is equal parts '80s post-punk and 2020s club, a head-spinning vortex where modular synths and chugging drum machines slam through Arabic poetry and MENA instrumentation. The lyrics are a meditation on the depths of memory, but they evoke feelings of immediacy. Any time someone tries to claim that "dance music isn't political," just stick this one on.

Lees meer

Dusted Magazine

“The Shedding of Skin definitely still has plenty of that original focus on analogue, outsider electronic music, but a significant and successful infusion of influences, forms, and instruments from Arabic music gives the trip real distinctiveness and bite. (...) the six songs here (including a brief, yearning reading of traditional song “Ed Wana Ed”) aim somewhere between the club and the experimental atelier, or possibly some kind of ritual space. The real success here is making music that feels like it would work equally well in any of those areas, even if you’re just listening on headphones.”

Lees meer

Gonzo (Circus)

En die eerste plaat mag gerust een voltreffer genoemd worden: ‘The Shedding of Skin’ is een opzwepende Belgisch-Irakese mix van pulserende elektronica en energieke ritmes. Een van de hoogtepunten op hun debuutalbum is ‘True-Love Not’, waarop galmende zang, klinkend als een getergde liefdeskreet, langzaam opgaat in een zee van aanzwellende percussie en synthesizers.

Lees meer

+ op de 'mind the gap' compilatie

+ enkele eindejaarslijstjes

It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine

Première van Coupe d'état (Boem Ratata version)

Lees meer

Foxy Digitalis

Première van To Feed the Gentry (live at VIERNULVIER)

“No matter where our attention is turned, as soon as Jerusalem In My Heart’s Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s buzuq rings out in the opening moments of “To Feed The Gentry,” our focus is caught. Moumneh joins the trio of Stef Heeren, Kwinten Mordijck, and Saif Al-Qaissy for this sonic exorcism. The embers of the buzuq improvisations catch, and a fire blooms. Vocals swirl in all directions, tethered to the ground by heavy electronic drones. This music is trying to break free from a world confining us. Tension grows in each successive expression, pushing further and further into the sky. “We will feed the gentry cobblestones” repeats as a mantra. Youniss Ahamad’s glitching, hypnotic visuals incorporated into this live performance help wind the wire even tighter. Use Knife tap into an ancient energy and transform it into new, futurist sacred rituals.”

Lees meer

The Attic

Staff picks of September 2022

Lees meer

Turn Up The Volume

“It’s simple. This is not only the best dance record I heard all year, but it’s also the most intriguing and fascinating one”

Lees meer

+ Best tracks of October 2022

Use Knife heeft opgetreden op festivals zoals Le Guess Who?, Rewire, Roadburn, Suoni per il popolo, Sonic City, Grauzone Festival, MENT Ljubljana, Videodroom/VIERNULVIER, Wave-Gotik-Treffen, We Are Open, dunk!festival, WORM en Wrongfest. Ze trokken de aandacht van... The Wire, The Quietus, Gonzo (Circus), Crack Magazine, Jude Rogers, Focus Knack, Indiestyle, dublab, Dansende Beren, What Happens, RTBF, Full Moon Zine, Under The Radar Mag, 3voor12, enola, Nowe Idzie od Morza, Mojo Magazine, Nowe Idzie Od Morza, Le Nouvelliste, Bruzz, a.o. Hier vind je een paar citaten uit recensies.

The Wire

Concert review MENT Ljubljana 2025 

(...) and Use Knife both excel at erasing global borders, (...) the latter by bridging East and West with an abrasive electronic skin and a tender core of melismatic singing. It’s this sort of diversity and choice of quality over quantity that helps MENT live up to its moniker - a music discovery festival, indeed.

The Quietus

Concert review MENT Ljubljana 2025 

MENT acts as a cultural crossroads for many, so it’s fitting that the last word should be for the band that best captures the tectonic shifts and strains in Europe in these uncertain times, Use Knife. The Ghent-Brussels-based outfit play an absolutely thumping show. Their offering has become darker, starker, and maybe more psychedelic in the run-up to their imminent new album. A nod to Coil, too, maybe… The insistent, pulsating mix of (electronic) dark folk, new beat, Arabic percussion and Iraqi Maqam see an audience melt into various shapes in Kino Šiška, surrendering to the beat and the dazzling visuals on the gigantic screens. There is much more menace in the air, what with their talk of little vagabonds and wanderers… Until next time.

Lees meer

Concert review Rewire 2025

On the last night, Use Knife brought their visceral and beautiful show to the Paard, the thumping (new) beats and plaintive calls for understanding reminding us that whilst we’re in the gutter, we must look up.

Lees meer

Gonzo (Circus)

Concert review Grauzone 2023

Van een totaal ander kaliber en jammer genoeg voor een (te) select publiek was Use Knife, het Belgisch-Iraaks verbond van Stef Heeren (Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat), Kwinten Mordijck (idem) en percussionist Saif Al-Qaissy. Mysterieus verscholen achter witte doorzichtige gaasdoeken waarop onder meer Arabische woorden en beelden werden geprojecteerd presenteerden ze hun bejubelde debuutalbum ‘The Shedding Of Skin’. De aangekondigde analoge en modulaire synths konden we niet onderscheiden, maar tribaal, dansbaar en bezwerend was het des te meer. Dichter bij een Muslimgauze live-ervaring komt een mens anno 2023 niet.

Lees meer

Concert review Rewire 2025

Ondertussen staat in de kleine zaal van hetzelfde pand het al even verbluffende Belgisch/Iraakse Use Knife dat onderstreept hoe goed de West-Europese en Arabische populaire muziek samengaan.

Lees meer

Concert review dunk!festival 2025

Use Knife is de ruwe botsing van oosterse en westerse psychedelica, drijvend op de energie van sociale en politieke verontwaardiging. Daarbij krijgen al dan niet industriële beats en discodrums hoe langer hoe meer de bovenhand, waardoor de zware thema’s moeten contrasteren met bijwijlen feestelijk klinkende muziek. Dat maakte van de set in het Wintercircus een wat zonevreemd en dus welkom uurtje muziek, en het perfecte contrast met wat nog moest komen.

Lees meer

Nowe Idzie Od Morza

Concert review Rewire 2025

The concert by Use Knife – a trio formed by Iraqi singer Saif Al-Qaissy, Belgian musicians Kwinten Mordijck and Stef Heeren, and visual artist Youniss Ahamad – is similarly impressive. The band combines Middle Eastern sounds with electronica, post-punk, and EBM to create an energetic, trance-like performance with a strong political charge. In the Paard hall, their concert becomes one of the most danceable events of the festival – the visuals resemble a contemporary, ritualistic disco.

Lees meer

Focus Knack 

Concert review Videodroom 2022

Diezelfde urgentie zat ook in de muziek van Use Knife vervat. Reeds vanaf het eerste nummer, de titeltrack van The shedding of skin, vielen de geroepen teksten van Heeren op. Met korte zinsflarden als ‘shed your skin!’ die krachtig in de microfoon geroepen werden, voelde het regelmatig alsof we ons op een dansbare protestmars bevonden.”

“Net zo krachtig als de teksten was de muziek. De beats klonken nog een pak steviger dan op het album, waardoor het geheel als een soort lome acid techno met Midden-Oosterse invloeden aanvoelde. De veelzijdige percussie van Al-Qaissy zorgde zo voor een aangenaam tegenwicht tegen de logge beats en betoverende melodieën. De combinatie van Oosterse melodieën en stevige beats deed soms denken aan het werk van Acid Arab, maar dan experimenteler en strijdvaardiger.

Lees meer

Concert review Sonic City 2022

De Arabische zang, gecombineerd met elektronische effecten en sterke beats trokken ons over de streep. Prachtige visuals ook die op de doeken geprojecteerd werden. (...) Een masterclass in stijlen versmelten.

Lees meer

Indiestyle 

Concert review Sonic City 2022

Daarenboven was het naast een muzikaal evenwel een visueel spektakel waarbij allerlei impressionante visuals op grote doeken die voor hen uit waren gedrapeerd. Use Knife was zonder twijfel één van de ontdekkingen deze editie.

Lees meer

Dansende Beren

Concert review Sonic City 2022

De productie was niet in het minst indrukwekkend te noemen. Drie gigantische doeken waarop beelden werden geprojecteerd met daarachter dan de bandleden. (...) De sound was hier heel dansbaar met vettige synths, maar we zagen altijd in de silhouetten wel een vreemd instrument opduiken om het geheel van experiment te voorzien. Op die manier bleek Use Knife een audiovisueel spektakel waar we konden naar blijven kijken en luisteren omdat er altijd een bepaalde nieuwsgierigheid getriggerd werd.

Lees meer

Concert review We Are Open 2023

De grote zaal werd gevuld met opzwellende elektronica, dreigende percussie en Arabische zang. Deze mix van Westerse elektronica en traditionele Arabische muziek werkte bedwelmend, maar het was het visuele spektakel dat de show stal. De artiesten verschuilden zich achter witte gordijnen, waarop soms hun silhouetten werden uitvergroot, en dan weer desoriënterende visuals van Youniss Ahamad werden vertoond. Dit geheel zorgde voor een interessante hypnotiserende set, die jammer genoeg snel voorbij ging.

Lees meer

Concert review dunk!festival 2025

Ergens halverwege de set toe rees de vraag wat deze groep weerhoudt om door te breken naar de grotere podia, en het antwoord is: weinig. Met een strakke sound, duidelijke boodschap en beredeneerde inkleding verdienen deze muzikanten simpelweg een breder publiek. Zeker met de recente plaat État Coupable, die bol staat van de frivole geluidjes en dansbare ritmes. Omdat het festijn op dat punt in de dag al liefst acht uur aan de gang was, vergeven we het zij die hun dansmoves achterwege lieten, maar toch wist Use Knife een collectieve trance op te roepen. Dit trio is duidelijk klaar voor meer.

Lees meer

daMusic 

Concert review Sonic City 2022

Met Use Knife volgde meteen al de tweede verrassing van de dag. Ook voor dit drietal was het nog vroeg op de dag, want de gordijnen bleven het hele optreden dicht. Best, want de visuals op de drie immense transparante gordijnen, gecombineerd met die schimmige schaduwen, waren een streling voor het oog. Nu, de set was evenzeer een streling voor het oor. In veertig minuten werden we meegenomen naar alle uithoeken van de wereld. Twee leden van Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat lijfden Irakees Saif Al-Qaissy in als Arabische percussionist en brachten in Kortrijk een boeiend brouwsel dat velen aanstipten als één van de hoogtepunten van de dag. Onlangs bracht de band op het nieuwe Viernulvier Records een eerste plaat uit. Hoog tijd om die eens te checken.

Lees meer

Musiczine 

Concert review Sonic City 2022

De eigenlijke reden dat we zo vroeg arriveerden was Use Knife, die we al een tijdje volgen en die ons wel kan bekoren. (...)

Use Knife (*****) houdt van experiment in hun klanken. Ze gebruiken ook niet-voor-de-hand-liggende instrumenten en verheffen experimentele muziek tot een ware kunstvorm. Stef Heeren, Kwinten Mordijck en Saif Al-Qaissy halen, verstopt achter doorzichtige doeken waarop mooie beelden verschenen, alles uit de kast om de aanwezigen te bedwelmen met een audiovisueel totaalspektakel. Eén keer kwam een van de bandleden vooraan staan om strofes te zingen, met 'Fucked' op de achtergrond geprojecteerd. Het publiek reageerde laaiend enthousiast en de bandleden kwamen vooraan hun dankbaarheid uitdrukken. Spectaculaire set deze Use Knife.

Lees meer

Concert review We Are Open 2023

Een intense, oorverdovende klank, die een bedwelmende, hypnotiserende invloed heeft. Een magisch, intrigerend spel van klank en beeld, die onaards, sprookjesachtig, spookachtig aanvoelt .

Lees meer

Concert review dunk!festival 2023

Binnen het intieme kadering in de Domzaal kwam die beleving nog meer tot zijn recht in duistere klank en lichtgevende beelden. We werden meegezogen in dit muzikaal verhaal. Wat een magie tussen licht en donker, een ingetogen schoonheid en een oorverdovend lawaai.

Lees meer

3voor12

Tips for Le Guess Who? 2022

Le Guess Who-favoriet  Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart) ontdekte dit Belgische trio en produceerde hun debuut, een samenklontering van woeste Arabische percussie en bedwelmende drumcomputers.

Lees meer

Interviews

The Wire

Use Knife: Rhythms of Refuge

“There’s anger in this album, it’s emotional - political - and you hear that. (...) It’s about a powerful elite versus people who are trying to build communities. (...) We’re flabbergasted daily, and nobody’s listening.” What État Coupable ultimately asserts is presence. “The message is solidarity. The forming of communities. We are all here.”

The Quietus

Feature: Music For A New Society: Use Knife Interviewed

"I had seen Use Knife on the cavernous main stage at Trix in Antwerp in February and was blown away by the sheer scale of their show. There, Ahamad’s projections shifted and slid in gigantic form in front of us, reassembling to the beat and suggesting new ways of expression as the juddering mixes of synthesised rhythms and plangent vocals swept over the audience. There is nothing half-hearted about Use Knife as a live act. You get the distinct feeling that each member is totally energised by this iteration of their collective art. A Belgian article dubbed their sound “electronic outsider music,” yet for me it is an all-embracing vortex that allows those experiencing it a chance to plunge, headfirst, into a hypnotic state that veers between a dreamlike trance and a sensual workout.

In Antwerp, people sucked in a sound that drew on venerated and contemporary Western underground music alongside various iterations of traditional Arab music culture. Most excitingly, as it unfolded, the music created an uncertainty as to what may happen next. Their song structures trigger a palpable wait for a “hidden reverse”, whether emotionally or sonically, reverses that originate from a number of cultural sources. This is the key they use to unlock us: a quick shifting of viewpoints allowing a wider emotional release."

Lees meer

Gonzo (Circus)

Uitgebreid interview

Lees meer

Full Moon Zine

Extended 3-page interview

We cannot talk about an audiovisual show, the performance of the Belgian-based trio Use Knife is a kind of strange hybrid, an experience on the border of genres and forms, which remains exceptional in today's visual-obsessed world, bringing a message of openness and understanding. (...) One of the most interesting moments of the album État coupable is the track Freedom, Asshole, which features a guest appearance from Nihiloxica drummer SpookyJ. The intervention of live drums in the middle of the electronic beats totally accelerates the whole song, as does AlQaissy’s powerful vocals. (...) “All eyes on us, dogma upon dogma,” Heeren repeatedly declaims during the title track État coupable, similar feelings are probably being fought by each of us, the stylized standard on the album cover symbolizes difficult times. The majestic title track is the centerpiece of the entire album, and it closes with a magnificent several-minute outro with the dominating lute buzuq, played by the aforementioned Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. État coupable means something along the lines of The State is Guilty, Use Knife, with its fiery production, attempts to address elites, institutions and every individual to whom the fate of the world is not completely foreign. At the same time, they also appeal to themselves not to slacken in their activity

Focus Knack

Interview + première van eerste single 'Ptolemaic'

Lees meer

HUMO

Interview

Lees meer

Peace Carnival (8 april 2024)

De remix-EP Peace Carnival van Use Knife (Morphine Records, 8 april 2024), waarop Zoë Mc Pherson, Muqata'a en Rabih Beaini nummers van hun debuutalbum The Shedding of Skin remixen, kreeg positieve recensies, interviews, werd op de radio gedraaid en genoemd van/door BBC6's New Music Fix, NTS Radio, Radio Fantasia, Tsugi Radio, Fullmoon Zine, Stegi Radio, Noods Radio, DJ Marcelle, Nowamuzyka, Boomkat, White Light/White Heat, Polifonia (Polityka), Mojo Magazine, ...

Boomkat

Morphine boss Beaini is up first, and his dense, drum-heavy version of 'To Feed the Gentry' should be enough reason to cop this one alone. The original track stretched out for almost 15 minutes, taking its time to introduce a thudding kick drum, but Beaini gets started quickly, complicating the rhythm with ornate hand drum flushes that dance around Radwan Ghazi Moumneh's buzzing buzuk lead and Saif Al-Qaissy's vocals. Beaini's electronic treatments are deceptively subtle: cautious loops and freeform edits that breathe along with the original parts. This is how you handle a remix.

Mc Pherson takes a sharper razor to 'Ptolemaic'; Use Knife's original was the album's heaviest track, and Mc Pherson increases the bass weight with thick subs that enlarge Use Knife's electro-acoustic instrumentation. Heralded by a looping vocal chant from Saif Al-Qaissy, gravelly breaks lift the mix into the next dimension - it's a slow, tense groover that's nowhere near as fast and chaotic as Mc Pherson's usual fare. And Muqata'a finishes things off with a brilliantly granulated version of Use Knife's housey 'The Shedding of Skin', interrupting his fluid beatwork with pregnant pauses and furious live fills. All killer, no filler.

Lees meer

Nowamuzyka

“The upcoming EP "Peace Carnival" is excellent reinterpretations and remixes of three selected recordings from the previously mentioned "The Shedding of Skin". The set opens with the song "To Feed the Gentry (feat. Radwan Ghazi Moumneh)" filtered by the production mastery of the Lebanese Rabih Beaini from Morphine Records. His label has been operating for almost 20 years! I have the impression that Beaini added an even greater trance to this composition, evoking a strong blast of Middle Eastern percussion, interspersed with the accent of brass, hypnotic oud and mantrically looped voices.

The composition "Ptolemaic" was taken up by the French-Irish artist Zoë McPherson (do you remember her album "String Figures"?), shocking us with uncompromising breaks from the drum'n'bass tornado with shades of downright post-punk / post-industrial and keeping you in the grip of dense, bass electronics until the end. The 10-inch vinyl ends with "Coupe d'état" performed by the Palestinian producer Muqata'a, who probably followed the original most faithfully, which only served to give this recording an original trend that cuts the sonic material with samples.

"Peace Carnival" is only 18 minutes of music, but it is thrilling and shows how electronic music should and can sound today, filled to the brim with freshness.”

Lees meer (Pools)

Sowieso F***ed (Oct 20, 2023)

Op 20 oktober 2023 bracht Use Knife ‘Sowieso F***ed’, ‘F***ed على أي حال’ of ‘F***ed anyway’ uit. De release werd in gang gezet vóór de brute realiteit van de genocide in Gaza. De cynische boodschap maakte daarom plaats voor solidariteit met het Palestijnse volk. De winst van deze release en het bijbehorende T-shirt gaat daarom naar de Gaza Crisis Appeal van Oxfam. Er was pers aandacht voor de release van onder andere The Quietus, Bantmag en Turn Up The Volume.

Turn Up The Volume

This new Use Knife piece is a both haunting and hypnotic affair. We get ominous slo-mo beats banging relentlessly with eerie chants all over it. Dark clouds in the air, calm before the storm, subdued electronic anger. It’s an alarming motherfucker of a track.

FUCK all war-greedy political leaders.

Lees meer

+ Best tracks of October 2023