7/10

After The Knife released their latest album 'Shaking The Habitual' last year, fans of the band welcomed it with warm applause while the critical music press was a little more lukewarm toward its arrival. But since then the Swedish siblings have been adjusting their releases to suit their elaborate and out of the ordinary live shows, and thus we have 'Shaken Up Versions', a new but smaller collection of the new work that has been tweaked to make it a little more live friendly.

Initially you may be thinking why bother when the original albums did such a good job of showing off The Knife brilliant and unique production style. But after just a few tracks you soon realise that this new material is very far removed from the sound of their back catalogue, using far more percussion than the first time around and almost transforming the album into club-ready edits made to bring fire to any dance floor. The new version of 'Got 2 Let U' is reminiscent of an old Bjork record with its techno arrangement and haunting vocals, while the tribal percussion addition to 'Bird' conjures up images of frantic live displays that give a total explanation as to why the pair sought to release these tracks.

Essentially I think fans of The Knife may be in two minds about the new versions. Hardcore fans will criticise it and wonder why bother changing them when they were great to begin with, whereas others will release that these reworks are meant as a lively addition to the band's full shows, and in that context, you can definitely appreciate them.