YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN - YT//ST

I've never listened to the albums after having seen the live show last year, which was excellent. Thanks for the thread revival.

If you go to the bandcamp site, be sure to click on the first track rather than the button for the entire album, because for me anyway it's been defaulting to the second track when I used the play album button.

Oh this is GOOD. Much wilder and weirder. 'One' for all its virtues DOES feel a tad...y'know, like Pitchfork reviewed one of their albums and hinted that it might go ballistic on the next one if they dumb up their act a bit and make an indie-dance hit. I'm not going through Gang Gang Dance again. But I think they're mostly on the right side of that line.

Look, this is how the Pitchfork review of Windflower ends:

The song's massive acoustic architecture demands that Yamantaka // Sonic Titan eventually find their way to an arena.

fuckoffPitchforkfuckoffPitchforkfuckoffPitchfork

loved the latest ggd record

shipp namedrop has me intrigued about this

I'm also concerned that the new album has much more boring songtitles than the first one, but open minds. This first album is really great - I have no idea where it's going next but it seems to

What happened to contenderizer re: this band. He popped in, said the first album was fantastic, and was never heard from again on this thread. Or is he on ILM sabbatical?

shipp namedrop has me intrigued about this

Could just be my idiosyncratic way of hearing it, but the piano at the beginning of Windflower does keep reminding me of Shipp. Maybe it doesn't quite have his gravitas (a word I think I've seen thrown around on another thread recently), but it's in the same ballpark. That's just a minor part of the song though. More than anything it is pretty vocally oriented psychedelia.

the new album has much more boring songtitles than the first one, but open minds.

Boring song titles are a good thing.

It's a departure from the debut, but I think in a good one. A Very coherent and beautifully recorded record. Begs to be heard on vinyl because of the sequencing.

GGD and others of that ilk irritate the shit out of me through no fault of their own because they're hailed by Pitchfork idiots as the cutting edge of contemporary avant-pop when they're actually competent indie-dance. This has much more to it than that though. Keep the negativity away.

Actually, Battles might have been the more notable recent victims of Pitchfork dumbology/regression-to-indie, even if that 2nd record had a couple of jams on it

Oh, so is the new one good? Yay!

no the latest is eye contact from a few years ago which I'm guessing is what you're on about! Battles are a much better example of what you're talking about in my opinion (ie I don't like em)

The new YT//ST mate :P

Eye Contact irritated me because that Glass Jar song was hyped as the most monumental thing ever and turned out to be a decent dance-rock jam with some psych touches

(Is it me or is the board really poppin' today? Even more eclectic mishmash of threads up at the moment.)

I kicked their arses, they responded. Great team-talk imo

drew25kra 1 day ago

Yes, because there are so many groups out there wearing kabuki make-up using Iroquoian chants and metallic guitar riffs and blending them in a way that's organic yet catchy...so mediocre, bro.

Lol.

Streaming:

http://pitchfork.com/advance/261-uzu/

What happened to contenderizer re: this band. He popped in, said the first album was fantastic, and was never heard from again on this thread. Or is he on ILM sabbatical?

― _Rudipherous_, Friday, October 11, 2013 2:25 PM (1 week ago)

meditating. took about ten minutes of the stream to get me to order a copy. it's only a shame that there are so many other albums out there that aren't this.

(!!!)

hell, if if there wasn't any music, just the graphics, they'd still be one of my favorite bands going

not boris or deerhoof, gundam grimes

Whalesong sounds amazing

i prefer sonic titan to yamantaka

what is your favorite of the two?

Boredoms for the masses

lack of constant was the biggest problem of yt//st
it seems like a problem here too.

no immediate catchy bombastic tubes like Hoshi Neko, sounds mellower but overall fine (1st listen)

catchy bombastic tube = "one", toward the back end

what is your favorite of the two?

whoever draws the animals (if that's one of them)

not sure i see lack of consistency as a problem, maybe a virtue, enjoy both albums as end-to-end listens (tho still processing the 2nd)

I think the production on the second one helps a ton. The clarity highlights the drumming, and allows for a broader range of vocal styles.

I've been living with UZU for about a month now (somehow managed to find a used copy a month before release, which is strange but I'm not complaining). Serious grower, so definitely give it a few more spins nostormo. It's pretty much become my fave album of the year.

Holy cow, I hadn't heard of these guys until a couple days ago and now this may be one of my favorites of the year. UZU is insane, I'm really loving it. I'm surprised folks aren't going more nuts over them.

me too! seems like something that would appeal to a broad cross-section of adventurous listeners.

I agree. I think it's much more welcoming than the debut. The appeal is broader and there are ways into it from a lot of different musical angles.

Idk. Like the firstvrecord better

the wretched will drown
with the salt on their lips
the stars at their feet
fanning flame to the mist
where the silent men live
and refuse to die
hand in hand they ride
into battle with the tide
to victory, a song...

after spending a bit more time w uzu, i do agree that it's uneven - but that's only a problem when i think of it as a collection of discrete songs. certain passages might feel incomplete absent the rest, but the whole works amazingly well as a front-to-back listening experience. while it's narrative, like the best prog rock albums, it feels less like a story than a journey. i can't call it complete success by pop's standards, but it's immersive, varied, moving and, best of all, remarkably catchy (at least in moments). tbh, it's hard to imagine the existence of people who wouldn't enjoy "atlanta", "whalesong" and "seasickness pt. 2". then again, it's hard to imagine a lot of supposedly real things.

UZU is growing on me and feel like it holds together more, over repeated listens.

whoa well done whoever nominated 'whalesong' for the EOY, this v v much bangs

:) It's a good 'un

Sadly cut off at 26 in my now-finalised traxballot. Give it an honourable gold star or something. Strikes me as the work of a band who are finding their way. The next album is probably going to determine whether I'm truly a Y//ST fan

Whalesong is the sh-t! This will make my ballot

Been playing this record a lot over the last week or so, I like it how it fuses a lot of the psych-folk stuff I like with preposterous pantomime rock bombast. It's deeply silly but very enjoyable.

Does remind me a bit of GGD in some unfathomable way as well.

New song!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTP1ku405rc

I listened a few times yesterday and I'm still working out what I think of it. It goes to some interesting places, starting out almost like a pop ballad, building up to heavy riffing and lead guitar triplets, all in 4 minutes. Not sure if it all works for me but there are some satisfying moments.

Yeah my hot take is that it could work a lot better in the context of an album, as a standalone single I don't really get what it is.

Upthread I claim to have listened to the debut and loved it...but I have no recollection of it at all! Will have to revisit

Yeah my hot take is that it could work a lot better in the context of an album, as a standalone single I don't really get what it is.

― ? (seandalai)

I get what you mean, but I think knowing their reference points and other endeavours (e.g. game soundtracking) it might be more fruitful to think of it as an opening theme? I'm hyped for new YT//ST stuff, anyway.

whoa this new track! get excited ilm

Hey, this is all right. Never heard of this band before.

I like it. It does seem to lack the heft to be a single, but it's still good and could play out nicely on an album.

Okay, 'Hungry Ghost' is rad.

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/yamantaka_sonic_titan-hungry_ghost

\m/