Elvira Kalnik – Water Knows (Single Review)

Trumpet starts us on ‘Water Knows’, a new EDM single by Elvira Kalnik. Few phrases into the trumpet, we hear an exclamation, or outburst, that sounds like ‘get away’. But the single’s official description is that the exclamation is actually ‘carried away’. Be that as it may, this is an emotional outburst. The outburst is repeated before we get into the lyrics, the ethereal beat carrying an airy kick that is punctuated by a single and continuous blip sound.

The single’s overall sound has a pop feel to it. It’s sweet to the ear, and you can just listen to it alone. You get a twangy motion with a lot of vibration going on instrumentally. This gives ‘Water Knows’ a retro-style video game sound – something you would associate with ‘My Red Hot Car’, a song by Squarepusher.

While the beat on ‘Water Knows’ is almost weightless, the song’s official description speaks of its vocals and trumpet as creating a ‘mysterious water vibe’. The description also talks about water having the possibility of healing and destroying.

The song subverts the school of thought that traditional EDM is all about dancing. This type of music falls under Intelligent Dance Music, a sub-genre of electronic dance music that emerged in the 1990s. This is music made to make you think – about water at least. Whether it makes you think about something else besides water is another story.

The ethereal beat is complemented by equally ethereal lyrics. Everything is uncertain, sings Elvira Kalnik. She then employs a devastating ‘darkness’-‘emptiness’-‘dimension’-‘meditation’ rhyming set. She sings about there being no darkness. What’s there, we hear, is ‘absence of light’, this absence likened to emptiness. It’s this absence/emptiness where everything starts, as our narrator speaks of unfolding through dimension.

For me, when I hear ‘dimension’, I think of space. Minds, we hear, flow in ‘meditation’.

Having talked about the ethereal part of the lyrics, let’s now talk about the realistic or cynical part. The song’s narrator tells us that, whereas they’ve heard that life’s a game, they, however, wish that were true. Elvira Kalnik says that the ‘the meaning and feel to this song is relief, hope and positive outcome through tapping into inner reality and releasing everything that ways us down into water and let it all be carried away’.

Score/Excellent. This is a beautifully understated EDM song whose lyrics awaken our consciousness and get me thinking. It got me thinking about water and life’s uncertainties. Moreover, it gave me a new appreciation of electronic music.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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