Knars (formerly known as Knarsetand) is back with a new, raw sound. The band reflects the energy of their message: ‘Welcome to the Madhouse.’ The 6-piece brings thunderous garagepunk, breakbeat and electronica, with cumbia and balkan influences. Knars drags her audience through the halls of her madhouse, full of hypnotising intensity. Savage lyrics, psychedelic soundscapes, evil brass and heavy guitar riffs, beats and basslines are what ensures the knarse-machine’s fuming pit of energy wherever they go.

Knars performed over 100 times in two years with its previous formation. From the small studio of the biggest radio station in The Netherlands, to main stages on large festivals. After the sunny days of festivals, Martijn Holtslag, who’s the composer, producer, and bandleader, crawled back into the darkness of his studio, and membrane. Disillusioned from the notion of a malleable world, disappointed in demagogic politicians, sleepless nights, a broken heart, a depression, litres of escapism, and a good dose of reality checks made Holtslag give a musical outlet to the anxious, itching, and grating feeling of agitation in his stomach. Besides writing the music, Martijn felt the urge to make his lyrics more personal and perform them live as a vocalist. A type of therapy. Tempered to spread his rebellious madness and escapism, a new band got together, to revive Knars and fight the delusion of daily life.

The new Knars sounds like the result of a studio session of a Rage Against The Machine guitarist having a bad trip, combined with a manic producer from The Prodigy, Pendulum on painkillers, and all of that performed live by some sort of freaked out Mexican garage punk band with two multi-instrumentalist brass addicts.