''Abandon Ship'' is the debut studio album by the Australian electronic dance music duo

Knife Party Knife Party are an Australian electronic music duo consisting of Rob Swire and Gareth McGrillen, two members of the drum and bass band Pendulum. The duo has worked with artists such as Swedish House Mafia, Steve Aoki, MistaJam, Foreign Begga ...

, released on 24 November 2014 by Earstorm Records, Big Beat Records and

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. Its release in stores was postponed from the initial 27 October 2014 release date to 24 November. However, on 7 November 2014,

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released the album early, and the early release has been acknowledged by Knife Party themselves.

Recording

Work on Knife Party's debut album started in September 2013, after the conclusion of their previous tour. By 4 June 2014, progress on ''Abandon Ship'' had reached a completion of nine tracks out of a desired twelve for release, with "five

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in the "maybe" pile and five in the "ideas" stage". The album entered its mastering stage in July 2014.

Promotion

The title of the album, ''Abandon Ship'', was unveiled on 8 June 2014 by Knife Party through a post on

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, which was illustrated with the image of

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tipping his hat. Knife Party appeared at the 2014

Electric Daisy Carnival Electric Daisy Carnival, commonly known as EDC, is an electronic dance music festival organized by promoter and distributor Insomniac. The annual flagship event, EDC Las Vegas, is held in May at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and is currently t ...

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on 20 June 2014 for the first show of the duo's Festival Tour during mid 2014. Their 70-minute set at EDC, which included new tracks from ''Abandon Ship'' in both demo and studio form, was streamed live over the internet. On 6 August 2014,

Rob Swire Robert Swire-Thompson (born 5 November 1982) is an Australian musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and DJ, best known as the founder and vocalist of the drum and bass and electronic rock band Pendulum (drum and bass band), Pendulum, a ...

released a teaser for the track "Boss Mode", from the forthcoming album. "Resistance" was released for free on 25 August 2014, also available for sale and supported by

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DJs including

MistaJam Peter Dalton (born 19 January 1983), known professionally as MistaJam, is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is known for presenting radio shows on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra from 2005 to 2020; since 2020 he has presented on Capital and C ...

. On 22 August 2014, the album was formally announced on Twitter, and is scheduled for release on 10 November 2014. "Begin Again" was released as the album's second instant grat on 22 September 2014, entering the

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at number 183. The song received widespread airplay from

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DJs, including

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

and

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. In a series of tweets on 11 October 2014, shortly after it was announced that the album release date had been pushed back by 2 weeks for reasons out of Knife Party's control, Swire spoke up about the decision to make the album; "So close to finishing this thing. Can't believe it. Before we embarked on this thing, some people in our sphere of influence told us "don't bother, just release your previous EPs as an album. EDM is dead, you should just release all your old material on one CD, fulfill the contract and then do something with

Pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the ...

." I realised that if an artist I liked released an album of old tunes, I'd be pissed off. So we wrote 12 from scratch, and it took forever. But I'm so glad we did it. Even if it turns out they were right and no one buys it and we have to sell organs for food."

Track listing

All songs written and produced by

and

Gareth McGrillen Pendulum is an Australian electronic rock band founded in 2002. Pendulum originally formed in the city of Perth, Western Australia, by Rob Swire, Gareth McGrillen and Paul "El Hornet" Harding. The band was later expanded to include members Ben ...

. "Superstar" co-written by and featuring vocals by

Bryn Christopher Bryn Christopher (born 8 November 1985) is a British singer and songwriter. Born in Great Barr, Birmingham, England, he attended the Italia Conti Stage School and was a contestant on '' Popstars: The Rivals''. His debut single, "The Quest", ...

I See MONSTAS I See Monstas (often stylised I See MONSTAS, and previously called MONSTA), are a British electronic music group. The group was formed in 2012 and consists of producers Rocky and Rufio (also known collectively as Pegasus) as well as singer Bryn ...

. "EDM Trend Machine" co-written by

Richard Boardman Delphic were an alternative dance band from Manchester, England. They are signed to Polydor but released their first single "Counterpoint", produced by Ewan Pearson, in April 2009 through R&S Records. The band started out as a trio – Richard ...

and Simon Aldred.

Reception

Abandon Ship received mixed to positive reviews from music critics. Andy Belt of We Got This Covered gave it 3 out of 5 stars, saying "Knife Party’s debut album will rouse you and get you in the mood to celebrate, at least for its thunderous first half. Its best tracks are Begin Again, Boss Mode, Reconnect, D.I.M.H., and Kaleidoscope- these tracks utilize not only EDM but also house, space and/or dubstep."

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control Knife Party albums 2014 debut albums