Richard Youngs — „Holograph“ (April 2, 2021)
°≡ Subjektivní motiv atentátníka má skrytý emocionální náboj. Neznámý je muž. Žije osaměle. Je precizní. A náhody bývají podnětem k našemu nejiracionálnějšímu jednání. A právě takto i také proto zřejmě vzniklo toto album. Nástroje: epinette des vosges, glockenspiel, guitar, oboe, oven tray, piano, radio, ring modulator, shakuhachi, tape, voice
°≡ „Tupá hudba vždy zůstane nudnou hudbou, ať už jste ji nahráli na Abbey Road, nebo jste ji udělali ve squatu.“ (Richard Youngs)
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Album release: April 2, 2021
Record Label: Glass Modern
Duration: 33:14
Tracks:
1. Never Ready To Say Goodbye 3:47
2. Psychopathology 1:59
3. Block Capital Notion 7:54
4. Motion Lying Low 3:20
5. Quickened Second Chance 5:55
6. My Head In The Hands Of My Senses 5:22
7. Fast Mindless Bright 4:57
Credits:
° Made at home on 4~track reel to reel Saturday 24th October — Tuesday 27th October 2020
° Richard Youngs: acoustic guitars, electric bass guitar, rhythm boxes, vocal
° Mastered by Colin Lloyd Tucker
° Wrapped by Zhivago
Description:
°≡ On Friday, Dave Barker asked if I would like to make a new song album for Glass Modern or — indeed — had I already made one. I had nothing and didn’t think I had anything to say.
°≡ It’s Saturday afternoon and I fire up the reel~to~reel. I have in mind making music to accompany a concrete image. It’s part of my continuing exploration of the possibilities of playing instruments with my feet. I sense this time I need a beat and I transfer onto tape three rhythms already recorded. With an open tuned 12~string acoustic guitar I strum an unfretted chord. Thick socks. It’s almost winter. Different pitches (tape speeds) — just for variety — then I overlay some foot bass work.
°≡ It’s approximately precise and I hear that — actually — this would benefit from being less approximate and more precise, so I do the parts again with my hands and it begins to feel like side two of an album; one that is top~loaded with hits then drifts out to more expansive experimental territory.
°≡ I recycle a lyric — Quickened Second Chance. I grab a recent lyric — My Head in the Hands of my Senses. I improvise a new lyric — Fast Mindless Bright (a negated film strapline). All sounds good.
°≡ Next day I’m still feeling expansive. I find a longish already recorded rhythm and, again, transfer to reel. Maybe a touch more movement today. I lay down 6~string acoustic guitar and bass. It shifts a bit more than yesterday. The prospect doesn’t alarm me. I find another lyric to recycle, and string it out slowly over my fresh backing. It’s coming together.
°≡ Monday: I need some hits. I write snew lyrics, grab some short sharp rhythm recordings on file, and the opening and closing track of my new imaginary side quickly fall out. Just a gap to plug now, something to lift after the opener. I remember a conversation about serial killers on TV and urgently I track Psychopathology to reel. I think it’s all there.
°≡ Tuesday: mix by day, then by night send off to Dave. The man from Glass says “yes” and sends it to Colin Lloyd Tucker to master. Things are moving fast. Colin and I to~and~fro, a quick remix on one of the tracks (dodgy shaker action), a chat about microphones, and we have a mastered record good to go.
°≡ And now I write this, the story of the making of Holograph.
°≡ Richard Youngs, Tuesday 3rd November 2020.
Review
°≡ Brittle, DIY pop from the prolific, Glasgow~based experimental awk~folk icon. Holograph was assembled in just three days and stands as a testament to Richard Youngs‘ idiosyncratic sonic world. No comparisons cuz after more albums and collaborations than we care to mention, Youngs just sounds like himself.
Using a 4~track reel~to~reel machine, guitars, vocals and drum machines, Richard Youngs pieced together “Holograph”, a brief and perfectly formed shimmer of micro pop that sounds like folk, tropicalia, comic rock and library music ground into fragrant, narcotic dust. The songs presented here might be split into individual movements, but melt into each other like candle wax, rhythms over rhythms and pained vocal into pained vocal.
°≡ Youngs’ songs are built around light, pinprick beatbox rhythms and airy bass melodies. Over these core elements he drapes the expected jangling acoustic guitar strums and the voice we’ve been obsessed with since the early days of crucial full~lengths like “Advent” and “Sapphie”. Gorgeous, singular stuff from a British original.
DUNCAN HASKELL on 14 March 2018 at 10:16 pm:
INTERVIEW:
°≡ https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/interviews/interview-richard-youngs
Big Music Place Of Mind — Richard Youngs, Donald WG Lindsay, Kevin McCarvel + Jennifer Lucy Allan.
A Conversation About Bagpipes and Improvisations with Jennifer Lucy Allan:
°≡ https://www.thesocial.com/big-music-place-of-mind-richard-youngs-donald-wg-lindsay-kevin-mccarvel-jennifer-lucy-allan/
DANIEL O’SULLIVAN & RICHARD YOUNGS — „TWELVE OF HEARTS“, Score: 5/5:
BY LEE FISHER ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 2020
°≡ https://narcmagazine.com/album-review-daniel-osullivan-richard-youngs-twelve-of-hearts/
BC: https://glassmodern.bandcamp.com/album/holograph
BC: https://goodenergy.bandcamp.com/album/history-of-sleep
TW: https://twitter.com/nofansrecords
Richard Youngs — „Holograph“ (April 2, 2021)
°≡ Subjektivní motiv atentátníka má skrytý emocionální náboj. Neznámý je muž. Žije osaměle. Je precizní. A náhody bývají podnětem k našemu nejiracionálnějšímu jednání. A právě takto i také proto zřejmě vzniklo toto album. Nástroje: epinette des vosges, glockenspiel, guitar, oboe, oven tray, piano, radio, ring modulator, shakuhachi, tape, voice
°≡ „Tupá hudba vždy zůstane nudnou hudbou, ať už jste ji nahráli na Abbey Road, nebo jste ji udělali ve squatu.“ (Richard Youngs)
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Album release: April 2, 2021
Record Label: Glass Modern
Duration: 33:14
Tracks:
1. Never Ready To Say Goodbye 3:47
2. Psychopathology 1:59
3. Block Capital Notion 7:54
4. Motion Lying Low 3:20
5. Quickened Second Chance 5:55
6. My Head In The Hands Of My Senses 5:22
7. Fast Mindless Bright 4:57
Credits:
° Made at home on 4~track reel to reel Saturday 24th October — Tuesday 27th October 2020
° Richard Youngs: acoustic guitars, electric bass guitar, rhythm boxes, vocal
° Mastered by Colin Lloyd Tucker
° Wrapped by Zhivago
Description:
°≡ On Friday, Dave Barker asked if I would like to make a new song album for Glass Modern or — indeed — had I already made one. I had nothing and didn’t think I had anything to say.
°≡ It’s Saturday afternoon and I fire up the reel~to~reel. I have in mind making music to accompany a concrete image. It’s part of my continuing exploration of the possibilities of playing instruments with my feet. I sense this time I need a beat and I transfer onto tape three rhythms already recorded. With an open tuned 12~string acoustic guitar I strum an unfretted chord. Thick socks. It’s almost winter. Different pitches (tape speeds) — just for variety — then I overlay some foot bass work.
°≡ It’s approximately precise and I hear that — actually — this would benefit from being less approximate and more precise, so I do the parts again with my hands and it begins to feel like side two of an album; one that is top~loaded with hits then drifts out to more expansive experimental territory.
°≡ I recycle a lyric — Quickened Second Chance. I grab a recent lyric — My Head in the Hands of my Senses. I improvise a new lyric — Fast Mindless Bright (a negated film strapline). All sounds good.
°≡ Next day I’m still feeling expansive. I find a longish already recorded rhythm and, again, transfer to reel. Maybe a touch more movement today. I lay down 6~string acoustic guitar and bass. It shifts a bit more than yesterday. The prospect doesn’t alarm me. I find another lyric to recycle, and string it out slowly over my fresh backing. It’s coming together.
°≡ Monday: I need some hits. I write snew lyrics, grab some short sharp rhythm recordings on file, and the opening and closing track of my new imaginary side quickly fall out. Just a gap to plug now, something to lift after the opener. I remember a conversation about serial killers on TV and urgently I track Psychopathology to reel. I think it’s all there.
°≡ Tuesday: mix by day, then by night send off to Dave. The man from Glass says “yes” and sends it to Colin Lloyd Tucker to master. Things are moving fast. Colin and I to~and~fro, a quick remix on one of the tracks (dodgy shaker action), a chat about microphones, and we have a mastered record good to go.
°≡ And now I write this, the story of the making of Holograph.
°≡ Richard Youngs, Tuesday 3rd November 2020.
Review
°≡ Brittle, DIY pop from the prolific, Glasgow~based experimental awk~folk icon. Holograph was assembled in just three days and stands as a testament to Richard Youngs‘ idiosyncratic sonic world. No comparisons cuz after more albums and collaborations than we care to mention, Youngs just sounds like himself.
Using a 4~track reel~to~reel machine, guitars, vocals and drum machines, Richard Youngs pieced together “Holograph”, a brief and perfectly formed shimmer of micro pop that sounds like folk, tropicalia, comic rock and library music ground into fragrant, narcotic dust. The songs presented here might be split into individual movements, but melt into each other like candle wax, rhythms over rhythms and pained vocal into pained vocal.
°≡ Youngs’ songs are built around light, pinprick beatbox rhythms and airy bass melodies. Over these core elements he drapes the expected jangling acoustic guitar strums and the voice we’ve been obsessed with since the early days of crucial full~lengths like “Advent” and “Sapphie”. Gorgeous, singular stuff from a British original.
DUNCAN HASKELL on 14 March 2018 at 10:16 pm:
INTERVIEW:
°≡ https://www.songwritingmagazine.co.uk/interviews/interview-richard-youngs
Big Music Place Of Mind — Richard Youngs, Donald WG Lindsay, Kevin McCarvel + Jennifer Lucy Allan.
A Conversation About Bagpipes and Improvisations with Jennifer Lucy Allan:
°≡ https://www.thesocial.com/big-music-place-of-mind-richard-youngs-donald-wg-lindsay-kevin-mccarvel-jennifer-lucy-allan/
DANIEL O’SULLIVAN & RICHARD YOUNGS — „TWELVE OF HEARTS“, Score: 5/5:
BY LEE FISHER ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 2020
°≡ https://narcmagazine.com/album-review-daniel-osullivan-richard-youngs-twelve-of-hearts/
BC: https://glassmodern.bandcamp.com/album/holograph
BC: https://goodenergy.bandcamp.com/album/history-of-sleep
TW: https://twitter.com/nofansrecords