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.
― Ornate Coleman (Moodles), Sunday, 10 November 2013 15:41 (ten years ago) link
me too! seems like something that would appeal to a broad cross-section of adventurous listeners.
― CANONICAL artists, etc., etc. (contenderizer), Sunday, 10 November 2013 17:38 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EZ Snappin, Sunday, 10 November 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
Idk. Like the firstvrecord better
― nostormo, Sunday, 10 November 2013 18:52 (ten years ago) link
the wretched will drownwith the salt on their lipsthe stars at their feetfanning flame to the mistwhere the silent men liveand refuse to diehand in hand they rideinto battle with the tideto 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.
― CANONICAL artists, etc., etc. (contenderizer), Tuesday, 12 November 2013 04:22 (ten years ago) link
UZU is growing on me and feel like it holds together more, over repeated listens.
― _Rudipherous_, Saturday, 7 December 2013 02:26 (ten years ago) link
whoa well done whoever nominated 'whalesong' for the EOY, this v v much bangs
― VENIET IMBER (imago), Thursday, 9 January 2014 16:31 (ten years ago) link
:) It's a good 'un
― Ornate Coleman (Moodles), Thursday, 9 January 2014 16:34 (ten years ago) link
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
― VENIET IMBER (imago), Thursday, 9 January 2014 17:41 (ten years ago) link
Whalesong is the sh-t! This will make my ballot
― fit for one who twerks and cries (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 9 January 2014 19:36 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 1 February 2014 15:16 (ten years ago) link
New song!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTP1ku405rc
― ? (seandalai), Sunday, 21 January 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link
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.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 21 January 2018 17:25 (six years ago) link
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), Sunday, 21 January 2018 18:06 (six years ago) link
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
― #TeamHailing (imago), Sunday, 21 January 2018 18:20 (six years ago) link
― ? (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.
― emil.y, Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:18 (six years ago) link
whoa this new track! get excited ilm
― #TeamHailing (imago), Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:23 (six years ago) link
Hey, this is all right. Never heard of this band before.
― you can make fun of birthday parties all you want (ultros ultros-ghali), Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:37 (six years ago) link
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.
― Salt Lake City Motorcycle Accident Nerve Damage Lawyer (_Rudipherous_), Monday, 22 January 2018 19:26 (six years ago) link
Okay, 'Hungry Ghost' is rad.
https://exclaim.ca/music/article/yamantaka_sonic_titan-hungry_ghost
― emil.y, Tuesday, 13 February 2018 18:33 (six years ago) link
\m/
― imago, Friday, 23 March 2018 10:21 (six years ago) link
progge is alive and well in 2018
― imago, Friday, 23 March 2018 10:32 (six years ago) link
I miss Ruby Kato Attwood more than I thought I would. This is good but it doesn't have the weird beauty of UZU, and a lot of that was her voice.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 23 March 2018 16:26 (six years ago) link
O holy shit, missed this. ORDERDED. Rarely a month goes by that I don't wonder what became of YT/ST.
Agree that "Someplace" is a weird choice for a lead single. Engaging & intriguing but awfully vague. Feels like it's just & finally getting ready to deliver when it abruptly ends. (Maybe it's better considered an "album teaser" or suchlike. Do we have those now?) Also agree that Ruby's soaring vocals are sorely missed. "Hungry Ghost" is much more immediate, and I love the vacuum tube Kali monster on the Soundcloud page.
Their label's Soundcloud also features 'Yandere' which doom-prog-pops even harder. By far my favorite of the three. Dere dere.
Video too:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iUsVyZTB_I
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 16:55 (six years ago) link
"hungry ghost" is almost deerhoof//gwar in the best way possible
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 23 March 2018 17:04 (six years ago) link
Album playlist:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGJYy6b9azY&list=PLzjK-BHnQoCxkmpgNzHx0pR1ojE-p4mgB
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 17:09 (six years ago) link
or not :(
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzjK-BHnQoCxkmpgNzHx0pR1ojE-p4mgB
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 17:10 (six years ago) link
"hungry ghost" is almost deerhoof//gwar in the best way possible― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, March 23, 2018 10:04 AM (six minutes ago)
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, March 23, 2018 10:04 AM (six minutes ago)
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link
whole album is on bandcamp
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 23 March 2018 17:40 (six years ago) link
Oh, one of them left?
Doesn't matter - this has their best music/songwriting so far
― imago, Friday, 23 March 2018 18:02 (six years ago) link
Yeah, that's true, but Ruby's voice lent the music a wide-eyed, otherworldly quality and emotional heft that was, I think, quite remarkable, especially in their heavy/arty niche. The anthemic, apocalyptic vocals at the end of the new album's closing "Out of Time" ("to be all alone at the end of the line") effectively communicate the idea of a desperate, heart-bursting passion that rises to meet life's darkest hour. But they don't embody it. They don't soar above the music like a battle flag.
YT/ST are coping with the absence just fine. Dirt brings sharpened chops and a much more fully developed sound to Alaska & co's best batch of songs yet, but Ruby's voice had an alchemical power I can't help missing.
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 18:33 (six years ago) link
Fair enough. Any idea why she left? Just heading in a different direction? Apparently one of the guitarists left too...
― imago, Friday, 23 March 2018 18:44 (six years ago) link
No. I don't have any idea what motivated the split. Have looked for information online, but have come up only with the fact of it. Don't think anyone involved has spoken on the record about the details.
― will work for cultural capital (contenderizer), Friday, 23 March 2018 19:16 (six years ago) link
interpersonal differences
ruby's been to opera school.john's doing other stuff.they are sweet people.
― sean gramophone, Friday, 23 March 2018 19:18 (six years ago) link
Parts of 'Dark Water' sound like 90s Final Fantasy battle music lol
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Friday, 23 March 2018 20:27 (six years ago) link
That's unambiguously a good thing btw
Aaaah yes I really like this, suppose I should check out their older stuff
― obnoxious pun (ultros ultros-ghali), Friday, 23 March 2018 20:53 (six years ago) link
Wow, this sounds great on first listen.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Saturday, 31 March 2018 16:17 (six years ago) link
Shortly to see them. Excited!
― imago, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 19:54 (six years ago) link
And rightly so!
― imago, Wednesday, 20 June 2018 23:02 (six years ago) link
all these butt-clenchingly woke EOY lists, and yet no room for Yamantaka // Sonic Titan, who are not only off-the-charts box-tickingly woke but also, more importantly, put out an amazing album
― imago, Thursday, 6 December 2018 13:29 (five years ago) link
They'll make mine.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Thursday, 6 December 2018 15:34 (five years ago) link
but will it be butt-clenching?!
― Mad Piratical (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 6 December 2018 15:35 (five years ago) link
I like this album, but I'm not sure it will make my 77 list, there may be too many albums I like even more.
I don't really get the woke comments though, but I suspect we'd all regret pursuing that line any further.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Thursday, 6 December 2018 15:43 (five years ago) link
they are touring the US opening for Acid Mothers Temple in the spring, and playing my town. totally psyched.
― sleeve, Thursday, 6 December 2018 16:01 (five years ago) link
same here! I was surprised that tour's hitting smaller cities
― mh, Thursday, 6 December 2018 16:32 (five years ago) link
That def sounds like a good time
― seandalai, Thursday, 6 December 2018 23:29 (five years ago) link
sounds like a butt-clenchingly woke good time
― macropuente (map), Friday, 7 December 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link
amt always come to slc and it's always a great show. will not be missing this one.
― macropuente (map), Friday, 7 December 2018 04:51 (five years ago) link
Ohhhh shit this is gonna be awesome! I'm totally going!
― slack thompson (Drugs A. Money), Friday, 7 December 2018 17:36 (five years ago) link