Round-up Tracks: Young Fathers, Unknown Mortal Orchestra & More

Fresh from winning the Mercury Music Prize (and being decidedly ambivalent towards it), Edinburgh’s Young Fathers aren’t content with resting on their laurels. The almost-industrial sounding ‘Rain or Shine’ blunts the edge of Death Grips’ intense volume, and turns an influence into something decidedly more pop. That’s after a chirpy staccato verse, boasting “I’ve got Jesus in my life… demons in my life”, a straight-forward melody with an underlying burr of bass which lends the composition an intensity that facilitates a deep, raspy, yet almost whispered verse that submerges into sirens, and a chorus that builds and builds to a shuddering crescendo.

This is a track of dark and light. That “I’ll be there rain or shine” refrain sounds optimistic, but there’s an inherent grittiness to the track that makes it truly compelling. And then it ends. Just out of nowhere. Sorry, but it does. Not trying to spoil the track for you, but it just… ends with a fantastic, confrontational cadence. Young Fathers are coming back to run the game again, still on their own terms. (Euan L. Davidson)

In a statement for his band’s new album, Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra expressed a desire to make “sounds that aren’t quite like anyone else’s”. This kind of goal has run from the group’s under-ether psych debut through to third LP ‘Multi-Love’, but it’s never been more pronounced than on the new release’s title-track.

Nielson’s vocals come off like a sea animal bopping its head above water, before dipping straight back down. There’s a new slant, chants being swamped to sound like whispers. The same goes for ‘Multi-Love’’s supporting cast, guitar lines verging into sitar-territory, backed with an R&B pulse with two feet firmly on the dancefloor. “I’m half crazy,” sings Nielson, summing up the UMO ethos of always standing on the brink of full-on bonkers. Like almost everything else in their locker, they merge alien intentions into something undeniably universal. (Jamie Milton)

Following the release of ‘push pull’ and ‘begin again’ Purity Ring have continued to drip-feed cuts from their upcoming album, debuting new track ‘repetition’ on Huw Stephens’ Radio One show. The auto-tuned vocals and orchestral synths paint a darker and more foreboding picture than anything else we’ve heard so far and sees the duo experimenting with a range of tones and effects which suggest ‘Another Eternity’ is likely to be a more varied affair than their debut.

Megan James’ vocals are typically enchanting and smooth - ensuring that this is unmistakably still Purity Ring - but auto-tune builds as the song crescendos, expanding out from dreamy, synth-pop into almost pure unadulterated pop music. Thankfully, the murky, throbbing synths and slightly disquieting content of James’ lyrics counterbalance Purity Ring’s new found experimentalism comfortably, allowing the band to experiment while staying true to their sound. (Stuart Knapman)

Listen to ‘repetition’ below - it starts up at the 8:28 mark:

There seems to be a new trope in RnB and Hip-Hop: the meeting of ideas that absolutely shouldn’t work. Let alone this track’s panpipes (almost unheard of since early 2000s Timbaland) and the use of a Mumford & Sons sample (which, on paper, shouldn’t work either), Angel Haze is showing immense comfort singing and rapping, a duo of talents often unfairly expected of female MCs.Over jaunty production, which combines the echo guitars of early Weeknd beats with Lex Luger hi-hats, Haze verges from intense, personal rap to a chart-botherer of a chorus; a perfect hook that displays an emerging vocal talent. We knew she could drop a verse, but there’s a song-writing talent that would put CANDLXS in the context of Rihanna, Ciara or Nicki Minaj at their most heartfelt.

Then there’s the breakdown – there’s Mumford, there’s the solo from ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ by everyone’s favourite secret Republicans, Journey, and there’s radio interference, to boot. It’s a strangely compelling side-step in a song that exudes ethereal beauty. Produced brilliantly by TROY NoKA (the kick-drum is emphatic, to put it lightly), this shows off Angel Haze at her current best. Emphasis on current. (Euan L. Davidson)

Last year’s phenomenal East India Youth debut ‘Total Strife Forever’ presented William Doyle as a master of all trades. Skirting from sombre, reflective balladry to 4am Berghain-ready techno, and back again, via pit stops in industrial and kraut-rock territories - often in the space of a single song - it was a record that thrived on its kaleidoscopic barrage of influences. It’s a brave and ultimately triumphant step, then, to see Doyle lay himself bare in the manner he does on ‘Carousel’, his voice taking centre-stage above a stripped back ebb-and-flow of choral synths.

It’s remarkably sparse, Doyle laying aside his bottomless Mary Poppins-esque bag of tricks in favour of a cascade of organs that sound lifted straight from a cathedral, rather than the bedroom in which – as with ‘Total Strife Forever’ - his upcoming second LP ‘Culture Of Volume’ was produced. Over the top, Doyle’s vocal is more muscular than ever. By pulling back on the effects that many of the last record’s vocal elements were swathed in, the track shines a soft but unrelenting light on Doyle’s haunting voice. He cryptically sings of the titular amusement holding him down, but with ‘Carousel’, Doyle’s East India Youth guise shows no signs of constraint. Instead, he looks set evolve the notions of the songwriter and bedroom producer long into the 21st century. (Tom Connick)

In some ways, the 80s are worth forgetting; shoulder pads, Egg-wina Currie and the Final bloody Countdown are some of the atrocities that the decade dragged with it. Nevertheless, it showcased some pretty stellar music. Sure, some of the stuff was cheesier than Alex James doing the Macarena. But that was part of its beauty; tracks by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (and their goddamn redonkulous name) or Soft Cell were super-kitsch, but throbbed with infectious hooks and a New Romantic glossing.

And this is where slick-hair sharp-suited indie-kids Spector come in. Ever since the quick wit and equally instant hooks of ‘Enjoy It While It Lasts’ led a short renaissance of pop-rock, they’ve gathered crowds of feverish fans clutching toothcombs and tubs of wax. Now, their sound is even more 80s-flecked and basically – how can this be put – MASSIVE. ‘All The Sad Young Men’ may have lyrics of a pretty bleak tone, but it’s a spine-tingling stadium-sized banger fitted-out with harmonised backing vocals and spaced-out synths. It’s one of those tracks that manages to have a pre-chorus as big as the chorus and makes the new album such an exciting prospect - but, thankfully – it doesn’t sound bloody anything like Europe. (Kyle MacNeill)

Gone are the days when Sam Dust’s Late of the Pier back-dropped ‘Skins’ soundtracks and grim-as-fuck house parties. Kids are no longer suffocating on broken glowstick fumes, and to be honest just about every remnant of the mid-to-late’00s indie dance heyday’s shattered into sorry splinters. Crystal Castles’ slightly-off-feeling split from last year felt like the last breath of an already hard-to-pin-down movement, but the flavour hasn’t dissolved by one jot. Dust might be operating in a completely different zone with LA Priest, but his post-LOTP project possesses the same cheek, a similar attention-to-detail and most importantly, an undying desire for back-breaking hooks. ‘Oino’ is intelligent as sin, a masterful blend of funk, Egyptian-nodding samples and muted guitar lines that makes Jai Paul look like something of a pretender. Belonging both to the previous decade and the exciting years ahead, this is the sound of a musician Dust-ing off the past with spectacular swagger. (Jamie Milton)

Tags: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Young Fathers, Listen, Features