Consider Me a Knower

Welcome back to Finetuned! Let’s keep the energy high this week with a genre-bending, metric modulating funky record. We’re going to be talking about their most recent record. This week we are chatting about KNOWER. Let’s get into it! ❤

KNOWER is an American independent electronic jazz-funk and avant-pop duo from Los Angeles, California. The group consists of Louis Cole (drums, keyboards, guitar, vox) and Genevieve Artadi (vocals, keyboards, bass). They officially formed in 2009 after meeting through the LA music scene, both trained in jazz and composition. The pair began releasing original songs and covers online, quickly building a following through YouTube for their virtuosic musicianship and playful energy. You will quickly realize what I mean by this once you jump into the record, its remarkably all over the place but in a positive way.

From the beginning, KNOWER embraced a fiercely DIY ethos - self-releasing music, producing their own visuals, and maintaining full creative control over their output. Their live shows evolved into large, high-energy ensembles featuring additional horn, bass, and keyboard players, further expanding their sonic reach. The duo’s ethos blends musical precision with humor, experimentation, and individuality, often rejecting conventional industry models in favor of authenticity and artistic freedom.

KNOWER’s music lives at the crossroads of electronic, funk, jazz, and pop. So literally… all over the place, LOL. Their sound features this tight rhythmic interplay, gospel chops-like drumming, intricate horn lines, lush harmonic progressions throughout, and synth-driven textures. They mix the sophistication of jazz and fusion with the energy of electronic and pop production, creating tracks that feel simultaneously chaotic and calculated. Their songs often juxtapose humor and sincerity, heavy grooves and delicate melodies, showcasing their ability to merge technical brilliance with emotional resonance.

On KNOWER FOREVER (2023) - our rec, the duo expands their sonic palette into a maximal, cinematic space. The album blends live instrumentation - things like strings, horns, and layered percussion - with processed synths and drum programming. The production is super fucking dense but deliberate, alternating between aggressive funk passages and these airy, open moments. Each track feels meticulously built, with crazy shifting dynamics, unusual rhythmic phrasing, and lush harmonic layering that creates a constantly evolving sense of movement and surprise. It feels like is entirely too dissonant, but then it just also isn’t.

Across the record, KNOWER creates a bunch of contract. This converses in a sound between chaos and calm, satire and sincerity, heaviness and levity. It’s an album that most definitely rewards repeated listening, revealing new harmonic details and rhythmic subtleties with each spin. The record captures the duo’s unique ability to combine humor, technical mastery, and emotional storytelling within a single, cohesive vision.

Thanks for reading here, Finetuners! I do hope you all have enjoyed this week’s Finetuned. I’d appreciate any insights, admiration, or otherwise. You can email me here: [email protected].

Please do share Finetuned with your friends & fam & whoever else! I believe great music should be shared, cherished, and understood from all sorts of perspectives.

See you all in the next one! 🙌

^{(Sources: Wikipedia, Arrival Artists, The Mass Media, Undertone Reviews, Sputnikmusic, AllAboutJazz, Hidden Lives / peanutbutterpope)}