New Music: Castanets: "Like a Pen" (the Knife Cover) [Stream]
Asthmatic Kitty debuted its online radio station a couple of weeks ago and the label has already added new treats to the playlist. One recent inclusion is Castanets' cover of the Knife's "Like a Pen", which will be on the AK band's upcoming tour-only EP. Where the Knife's Karin Dreijer's vocals are all about detachment, Castanets' Raymond Raposa's are foregrounded and dominate the song. Castanets nod to the original with a spooky organ and ghostly female vocals in the background, but this is still a mostly acoustic affair. Thankfully, Castanets don't go for the condescending (and usually dull) "strip away the electronics to 'prove' there's a 'real' song beneath" approach; instead, Raposa and co. have crafted an artful, slow-building arrangement that's just as haunting and doom-laden as the original, and no less interesting.
Stream: > Castanets: "Like a Pen" (the Knife Cover)
[from a forthcoming tour EP]