Use Knife

About

" A perfect and unique Belgo-Iraqi music fusion "

This surprising Belgian-Iraqi band started, initially, with Stef Heeren and Kwinten Mordrijck, two musician friends. Their project was originally called KTAOABC for “Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat” (yes, really), a new wave influenced duo that over time became more and more electronic. In 2020, for the release of their 7th album the two friends are introducing the world to a brand new project called ‘Use Knife’. Like many other bands, they took the time to sit down, think and refine their music during the forced break of the pandemic, a period during which they decided to add a new game-changing influence. This is where Saif Al-Qaissy comes in.

Born in Baghdad into a family of musicians, he fled the war in his country in order to move to Syria, followed by Turkey, before landing in Brussels in 2015. During these years of exile, he perfected his knowledge of music and focused particularly on Iraqi percussion and singing. This is exactly what seduced Stef and Kwinten.

On ‘The Shedding of Skin’, their album released in September on the Flemish label VIERNULVIER Records, the trio from Ghent cleverly fuse Eastern and Western musical influences to create a powerful and unique result. The Western underground electronic scene, its experimental club sounds and catchy techno rhythms, melt with the Arabic percussions (doholas, kishbas) and the essence of traditional Arabic songs. The result is an impressive (and immersive) cultural fusion that forms music of a new genre. It even makes the music of Use Knife political, being a real ode to openness and to tolerance, a bridge between two cultures both in the lyrics and in the philosophy of the project. With ‘The Shedding of Skin’, Use Knife reaches new heights in a mysterious land!