The opus, Sick Octave, is ‘messy, laissez-faire, low-fi’ and the ‘best record Young Knives have ever made,’ as TIM HUGHES is assured

HENRY Dartnell has a lot to say. The frontman of Oxford band Young Knives has always been an eloquent talker, but he has extra reason to be happy. After more than a decade together, his inventive three-piece have come up with what he believes is their finest work to date. And it sounds like nothing else.

“This is the record we always wanted to make,” he says.

“It’s raw, it’s messy, it’s laissez faire and it sounds low-fi – though that’s because we recorded it ourselves.”

The album, Sick Octave, is named after the DIY synthesizers the band uses and is a conceptual tour de force of indie, math-rock, electronica, spiky experimental and melodic pop. After years of being pushed around by management, the three-piece of Henry, who sings and plays guitar; brother Tom, who also sings and plays bass and keys, and drummer Oliver Askew, have done it all on their own terms. “It’s the best record we’ve ever made,” says Henry, in his gentle Leicestershire accent (Henry and Tom – nicknamed The House Of Lords as he has the final say on band decisions – grew up in a small village near Ashby de la Zouch).

It has been a long journey for the lads who started in the late 90s as Simple Pastoral Existence and Pony Club, before grabbing attention with their 2002 debut mini album The Young Knives... Are Dead.

It was their first real album Voices of Animals and Men, however, which earned them their place as one of Oxford’s greatest ever bands.

The record, which reached number 21 in the charts, was a quirky collection of songs inspired by Henry’s observations of everyday life. Featuring the top 40 singles singles Here Comes the Rumour Mill, She's Attracted To Weekends and Bleak Days, and live favourite The Decision. It went on to be nominated for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize.

The band followed up with Superabundance, which charted at 28, and included the single Turn Tail – and 2011’s Ornaments from the Silver Arcade. Henry, now a father-of-three, describes the last record as “the end of a trilogy” and, while proud of it, he admits it broke them, with the band spending a fortune on marketing.

This time they did it all themselves. With no label or management to tell them what to do, they have let their imaginations run riot. Alongside the trademark edgy guitars are drum machines, bleeping retro computer game effects, sounds created on free iPad apps and taken from YouTube, an old Casio, and metal bars and cylinders being dropped and banged.

“We got to the point where we decided we would either not do this any more or do something nuts,” he says.

“When the last album came out it was so pressurized. It was the most heavily managed ever.

“I’ve always had an idea of what I should be doing but haven’t been doing as we were pulled in different directions.”

Recording was at Henry’s home in Kirtlington, north of Oxford, but they harvested sounds from unusual settings like the cavernous hangars of the former USAF base at Upper Heyford.

And it was a labour of love, with writing and recording fitted around day jobs. “We did it at evenings and weekends,” says Henry. “But we proved we can bring out a bonkers record we can enjoy. And we got rid of people telling us what to do. After all, we know how we should sound.”

While a departure, Henry insists it is definitely a Young Knives record. “It’s reminiscent of our second album,” he says. “We like experimenting. It is industrial sounding but also poppy and melodic. I like melody but I also like distortion and a bit of filth.”

Standout tracks include the Owls of Athens, with its driving electro beat, and the genre-hopping Something Awful – inspired by his grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

“For the first time we’ve made a record which I can listen to,” he says. “After mastering the last one I never listened to it again as it stressed me out.”

The band will showcase the record by playing it all the way through at a series of live dates starting with The Cellar in Oxford on Saturday.

Henry describes the show as “theatrical “with film, dancing and other stuff.”

“We didn’t want to just rock up, play a gig and go,” he says. “We are going to make it a bit of a spectacle.”

The show will end with a stripped-back set of their best-loved old songs. He says: “If you enjoy what you are doing and are passionate about blowing people’s minds you are doing something right,” he says. “This has freed us up to do something more interesting. And we have nothing to lose.”

  • The Young Knives play The Cellar, Oxford, next Saturday. Tickets have sold out. Sick Octave is out on November 4.