Premiere: Great Ytene Stream Self-Titled EP In Full

The psych freakouts and messy noise that Great Ytene so proudly sport aren’t exactly seedy, but when pressed about equating their music to a cocktail, they suggest “anything from Wetherspoons.”

That might be cheapening things a bit. On a self-titled debut EP, they muck about with psych and post-punk, ending up sounding a little bit Hookworms, a little bit Horrors. Together they create what could equate to downing half a dozen G&Ts and suffering the consequences. Or it could be a source of heady escape. It’s open to interpretation.

We’re delighted to be streaming Great Ytene’s debut EP in full, below. Read our interview with the band below. Pre-order the EP here. Tomorrow night they play London’s Sebright Arms, 26th February.



How did you end up hooking up with Bella Union for the debut EP? When did you start/finish writing these specific songs?
Good fortune and luck - like any band that gets a chance to work with a great label. Right place right time. We’ve been playing together as musicians in different bands for years now. We’d already written a bunch of tracks and recorded them with our mate Rory Atwell towards the end of 2012 and at the start of summer 2013 arranged to record some newer ideas with another good mate, Iggy we know from back home (Bournemouth). He was/is working out of the same studio that Bella Union uses, and I can’t say for sure but my guess is Iggy showed our recordings to Simon at Bella and that’s how the ball started rolling.

When you play live, there’s a big emphasis on an enveloping wall of sound. Do you associate yourselves with acts like Hookworms (that’s one question)? And are the comparisons to other ‘psychedelic’ bands spot on?
With the record and more so with the live show, we try to incorporate and play around with various layers of sounds and noises to build and add depth to songs with the intention of creating something bigger and more encompassing than what you’d find normally in some songs and bands. I guess we kind of share this trait with Hookworms, though on a much less nosier and intense level than those guys.

It’s always cool to be compared to bands and artists you enjoy and respect and it’s great to be associated with bands currently pushing music in new and interesting ways. It’s definitely nice to be considered part of something, but it’s by no means what we strive for. As a band we never set out with the intention of writing songs in a certain style or to try and fit into any genre, we just wanted to create music we found unique and interesting. Some of our influences are evident in our songs, but I don’t think they bear the qualities of one particular sound.

Your music seems purpose-made to be played LOUD. Was that the intention? Did you have any grand ideas when you started the band?
That wasn’t intentional, though it does sound pretty good loud. When we started we never had a definitive plan of how we would sound, we just started writing and experimenting, throwing ideas at each other and it developed into this record.