Eclecticism sometimes seems only jarring and over the top. But Boston avant-pop-prog sextet Bent Knee take the disjointed vibe and music-school virtuosity and drive it to crazy, head-scratching places. There are types of complexity that pull you in rather pushing you away. Bent Knee seem to want to blow your mind.
The band’s 2014 record “Shiny Eyed Baby” opens with the title track, which sounds like a sad piano ballad in the style of Judee Sill. From there, Bent Knee and dynamic vocalist Courtney Swain unleash torrents of acrobatic howling, part doom metal, part art song. Fans of John Zorn’s Naked City, Diamanda Galas, the Boredoms, Ponytail, Mr. Bungle, Bjork, Tool, Horse Lords and other high-wire extremists will enjoy Bent Knee’s technical contortions. A recent single, “Land Animal,” evokes Kate Bush with Swain’s stratospheric soprano, and the band’s lurching spy-theme music interspersed with exotic atmospherics.
Bent Knee released a new record, “Say So,” in May. It’s thorny. It’s challenging. But Swain and crew sound like they’re having a blast. In some ways it’s all over the place, but its all-over-the-place-ness is actually just the specific zone of meshed influences and giddiness where Bent Knee resides.
Still, there’s a sadness buried beneath the mania. Many of Swain’s songs seem to be about a state of dissatisfaction with and alienation from contemporary consumer culture. Do you have a place in your heart for epic anti-commercial thrash-funk cabaret? If so, Bent Knee could be your jam.
Bent Knee performs at Cafe Nine, 250 State St., New Haven, Saturday, June 3, at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. 203-789-8281 or cafenine.com.
