richard youngs ,what's his best stuff?

(agree the 2lp is the coolest - a benchmark of '90s free form freak-out - but probably real hard to come by?)

possible insight: i was playing someone the track "mendle" from the mr fox lp "the gypsy" (transatlantic, ca.'70) in the weekend and they were like "oh, so this is where richard youngs gets it from!"

the stuff with wickham-smith is all over the place. the latest one (LAMMERGEIER) is electronic-sounding and isn't really compelling, ditto for _veil_. _lake_, _red and blue bear_, _giladji_, and _kretinmuzak_ all explore abstraction in varying degrees and in varying lengths; i like _red and blue bear_, which is a children's story with accompanying music.

everyone hates their _pulse of the rooster_ cd, btw, but i think it's great drone/psych/pop come at from a completely fucked up angle. beautiful music that could go on forever, vocals that annoy a lot of people. worth hearing. i think you can sample a few of their releases at vhf records.

he has a new record out, it's called "airs of the ear." has anyone heard it?

my favorite records by him are "festival" (by a long shot) and then "may" and "sapphie." i believe "making paper" has that song "warriors" which i've never liked much.

what's odd is that when i mention r.y. to the one or two acquaintances of mine that know his music, they roll their eyes as if to say, 'oh that toss..."

does anyone have his vegan cookbook?

Neil Campbell and Stewart Walden's duo cassettes are better for pure drone-age tho

i forgot to mention that youngs' _advent_ will leave your carpet smoking.

hm that was an understatement.

i figured out which machaut piece "machaut's dream" quotes from (it's available on t he "art of courtly love" collection) but now i forgot the name. it's in medieval french anyway.

(You still looking for that cookbook, amateurist? there was recently a copy in the student fleamarket here...)

new ilk album! it's only been a decade. richard youngs in proper prog clogs. i bet i'm the only person excited by this though.

And in my opinion Richard Youngs has always been better with other people than just solo.

Ah no -- and since I love Galbraith, I must investigate, even if he's a limited presence.

Anyway, my favorite Richard Youngs has always been the first song on Festival. I fell out for a while but got back at some point and got really into Sapphie, one of the most gorgeous solo records I've ever heard, really really beautiful.

I was so into their stuff in college. My boss at the record store got the vinyl in, releases on Forced Exposure and stuff like Durian Durian. I'd just never heard anything like that before. Then we got in Kretinmuzak and I was so confused. What was this stuff? It sounded like 2 guys, a casio and a cardboard box making electronic choral music from Mars. I started collecting all that stuff, and remember having really high hopes for the Richard Youngs/Matthew Bower record on VHF but not liking it as much as I hoped, and I think it made my entire record collection smell funny(er) because of the inks or paints on it.

And echoing above, I dont' know if everybody hates Pulse of the Rooster, but I think it's awesome, more accessible, electronic art rock, definitely Simon and Richard at their most Joy Division! If you don't know what I mean, check out By the Sea...

saw him and alex neilson (and campbell kneale, also on gtr, for one number) play a fantastic noize duo blowout earlier this month

aye, this was good, especially the two really sludgy pieces in the middle. although it dragged a bit towards the end.

it was good indeed. I went for a slash after his set and every bloke at the urinal was singing 'summer's end'. how touching.

As far as one single, simple song of his goes, though, you can't go wrong with "The World Is Silence In Your Head" from "Making Paper", a great Feldman-y piano ditty along the lines of Grubbs/Gastr.

youngs is a totally unique artist. I've been familiar with him for a year or so, and I'm no closer to truly understanding what he's doing. there are so many facets to his music, but they're all reflecting the same image...if that makes sense. it's very early. pre-coffee early.

yeah it was, i remember liking the weird skronky techno section in the middle most, but for something that was so all over the place stylistically it worked really well as a coherent set. (someone in front of me was recording it, but unfortunately that's all the information i have - we'll just have to ask everyone who's ever at cafe oto and hope we get lucky.)

boy do i love richard youngs.
i have to play catch up. i think there are at least a few records released since the last one i bought..

man this Youngsbower record! I know I'm a decade behind but it is SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

his set with Luke Fowler at Cafe Oto last night was one of the best I've seen from him in years of seeing him here there and everywhere. Singing + grand piano + modular synth beats section was as beautiful as anything he's done and needs to exist in recorded form somewhere.

What did UPPER MS SHAKEDOWN end up digging?

He is so, so special. Last night was wonderful and as confusing as ever. I thought they may do deep techno all night at one point - I wish this bit was louder, there was some chatter during that. But then he came into the crowd and sang his soul and broke everyone as far as I could see.

I'll have you know I had something in my eye.

So has anybody heard the new limited vinyl LP "Barbed Wire Explosion In The Kingdom Of Atlantis"? I bought a copy from the usual source but my needle is buggered so can't listen yet. D-beat, what the hell is D-beat? etc (yes, I read about it on Wikipedia)

FIRST SOLO US TOUR IN SEPTEMBER!!
http://www.jagjaguwar.com/artist.php?name=youngsrichard

Oh man, I got excited, but then no Chicago.

Oh man :(

seeing him play with alastair galbraith when he toured nz a few years ago = amazing (opening his set with a cover of the dead c's 'sky' was a pretty lol moment too)

So going to this.

good for Richard, making a break for the big time.

Has anyone heard the "Barbed Wire Explosion In The Kingdom Of Atlantis" album that kraudive mentioned? It sounded intriguing but not quite intriguing enough to splash out whatever Volcanic Tongue were charging.

It's good but very short. Twelve tracks under 2 and a half minutes, and many of them under a minute long. It's repetitive and noisy rock with a similar hardcore drumbeat on every track. It's very much Richard's voice throughout, crooning over the cacophony. I'm not at all familiar with the central concept genre but I've enjoyed it each time I've heard it. "Neon Desert" is worth hearing for his Rotten like howling.

I would urge any US ilxors to go and see these shows. You won't regret it. You may well not get what you're expecting but what you get will likely be fantastically great and moving.

Damn. When can I see him again?

What would it take to convince someone to book a show in Chicago?!

can't wait for this show tbh. richard is one of my faves...

http://bombsite.com/issues/999/articles/7310

nice interview with Ben Chasny.

Has anyone heard the "Barbed Wire Explosion In The Kingdom Of Atlantis" album that kraudive mentioned? It sounded intriguing but not quite intriguing enough to splash out whatever Volcanic Tongue were charging

VT is listing it at £12.99 which hardly seems unreasonable for a signed limited run of 250 copies.

Thanks for posting that interview! Great read, love Chasny and Youngs, but have never read an interview with Youngs. Pretty insightful.

Look for Marc Master's old Zine, Crank Automotive. Issue 5 I think has an EPIC and fascinating interview with Youngs, and an awesome one with Stefan Jaworzyn. T

Thanks Dan! Marc is a great guy, hope I can track that down. Maybe someone has digitized it ....

there was also a good interview with him in the Wire a few years back, the one where he was also on the cover. Around 2007, maybe?

Yeah, I had (have?) that Wire. He is just a compelling guy, always has some really interesting stuff to say and is just so atypical as a musician.

Great show tonight in Brooklyn.
Fairly evenly split between acoustic guitar and acapella numbers. Very happy I went.

Oh man, I totally forgot about that. Worked late and was exhausted and came home to more work and debating if I'm going to Lindstrom/Todd Terje and totally forgot about Richard Youngs even though it's in my calendar. Saw him and Simon Wickham-Smith at the Table of the Elements Festival at the Knitting Factory in the 90s. First Tony Conrad show since the 70s I think? W/ Jim O'Rourke. Zeena Parkins played as well.

his best stuff on canticle, by ilk

Northampton show was great, too! I was hoping for some Ilk, but I'll take what I can get since he hardly ever plays live in the US.

Just ordered from VT: a tour cd "rumoured to be the album ‘rejected’ by a notorious cabal of bozos masquerading as an ‘underground’ record label"

Hmm, who would this be? Jagjaguwar maybe? They've not released one of his records for a while. Heard one track and its typically tripped. Sounds great actually. Is that 6 LPs this year then?

https://soundcloud.com/volcanictongue/unreleasedrichardyoungs

went to a local glasgow library this lunchtime to return a cpl of bks. slightly disconcerted to find richard youngs behind the counter. he had that slightly wary "you might know me outside of my day job" look, so I didn't say anything.

For context, that unreleased tracks soundcloud "release" is as-picked by Neil Campbell from a pile of unreleased R. Youngs stuff he has lying around. It's a fun listen for sure.

Ward, that is very cool and decidedly weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7mBRk3WCx8

gorgeous

RICHARD YOUNGS - A TOWER HAMLETS TRILOGY
Three different performances in three different places

...For this very special trilogy of shows in London's Tower Hamlets, Richard has been working with Upset The Rhythm to take live music away from its safe domain of established venues to somewhere different in search of a more radical and memorable experience. Over the three nights Richard Youngs will perform an entirely different in tune with each specific place...

http://www.upsettherhythm.co.uk/

No Fans Compendium 7xCD box set on VHF in April!

http://www.vhfrecords.com/news/2015/2/19/richard-youngs-no-fans-compendium-7cd-box-available-april-6-2015

that sounds great, and VHF releases are usually affordable.

descriptions of the 7 CD's contents and some sounds here
in case you (like me) were wondering if you need 7 CDs/$45 worth of hard-to-find Richard Youngs music
http://www.vhfrecords.com/catalog/richard-youngs-no-fans-compendium-7cd-box-set-vhf137

~~sold~~

i'd like to pay to download this. hope they port it to emusic.

New disco thing, although I'm not sure he had any involvement other than singing on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQpE8Aqb32U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NH5HQ4yFYHI

AMON.

Disco things got Paul from franz ferd on it. Not sure who else.

Finally got a copy of A Glasgow Wassail this summer and it's on now for the first time. Sounding lovely and a bit spooking / Christmas Eve BBC 2. Them vibes.

I'd also recommend to those interested his recent collaboration with Daniel O'Sullivan - brings out the best in both of them.

All Hands Around the Moment from last year is getting to me at the moment. If Tim Buckley had made an album for ECM it might've sounded a bit like this.

Also, RY's pal/peer Eric Chenaux just released a nice extended-song semi-cover/tribute as part of the Constellation Corona Borealis series:
https://ericchenaux.bandcamp.com/track/3-stars-on-mountain-of-doom

thanks for highlighting this, i totally missed it last year (to be honest i've been out of contact with his stuff for quite a while) and it's really great

Did we need a "reimagining" of Sapphie by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble + friends? Probably not. Is it worth a listen? Sure

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xmNczXQSak