YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN - YT//ST

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/

progge is alive and well in 2018

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.

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

"hungry ghost" is almost deerhoof//gwar in the best way possible

Album playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGJYy6b9azY&list=PLzjK-BHnQoCxkmpgNzHx0pR1ojE-p4mgB

or not :(

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzjK-BHnQoCxkmpgNzHx0pR1ojE-p4mgB

"hungry ghost" is almost deerhoof//gwar in the best way possible

― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, March 23, 2018 10:04 AM (six minutes ago)

whole album is on bandcamp

Oh, one of them left?

Doesn't matter - this has their best music/songwriting so far

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.

Fair enough. Any idea why she left? Just heading in a different direction? Apparently one of the guitarists left too...

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.

interpersonal differences

ruby's been to opera school.
john's doing other stuff.
they are sweet people.

Parts of 'Dark Water' sound like 90s Final Fantasy battle music lol

That's unambiguously a good thing btw

Aaaah yes I really like this, suppose I should check out their older stuff

Wow, this sounds great on first listen.

Shortly to see them. Excited!

And rightly so!

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

They'll make mine.

but will it be butt-clenching?!

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.

they are touring the US opening for Acid Mothers Temple in the spring, and playing my town. totally psyched.

same here! I was surprised that tour's hitting smaller cities

That def sounds like a good time

sounds like a butt-clenchingly woke good time

amt always come to slc and it's always a great show. will not be missing this one.

Ohhhh shit this is gonna be awesome! I'm totally going!

Dirt is unquestionably one of the albums of the year

wb; otm

really great show!

ended up talking to the YST bassist who joined the band a few years ago after their set

must have been a good set

really great iirc

Dirt holding up really well this morning. Who played the solo on "Out of Time"?

their guitarist presumably!

Ha, OK, I guess the question is who the lead guitarist on the album is, then, since no info on personnel came with the digital album I downloaded from Bandcamp in 2018.

Electric Guitar – Hiroki Tanaka

Ah, thanks. So a seven-string player who was new for this album?

Yeah. The band absolutely shredded live obv