Has LJ heard these guys yet?
― emil.y, Friday, 11 October 2013 11:38 (ten years ago) link
Anyway, I prefer 'One' to 'Windflower', but I can see the latter working really well as an album track. Call me crazy but I hear a certain Trish Keenan phrasing to some of those lines?!
― emil.y, Friday, 11 October 2013 11:51 (ten years ago) link
Oh! On it soon's I'm home :)
― check yr poptimism (imago), Friday, 11 October 2013 11:59 (ten years ago) link
This was the one that first got me into them, but I reckon 'One' or 'Lamia' will hit your tastes quicker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k472YAVzoGU
― emil.y, Friday, 11 October 2013 12:09 (ten years ago) link
It's a good record. Expect a full review from me somewhere soon.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 11 October 2013 14:09 (ten years ago) link
that was groovy - very melancholic keys. may have a root around for more
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 20:56 (ten years ago) link
oh now this Windflower is what I'm TALKING about :D
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:01 (ten years ago) link
Now listening to One. Shit me I made a good decision to spin out in that awful thread earlier
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:03 (ten years ago) link
You can still stream their debut album on their bandcamp site, I think. Also on spotify.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:06 (ten years ago) link
Really loving Windflower though.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:07 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89iO84vztyM
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
Only issue I have is that the closing rave-up sticks with the same riff throughout when it's crying out for an escalation or change-up. Apart from that, great. Gonna listen to the debut album now.
Windflower is the best one I've heard so far.
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:08 (ten years ago) link
I've never listened to the albums after having seen the live show last year, which was excellent. Thanks for the thread revival.
― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Friday, 11 October 2013 21:10 (ten years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:12 (ten years ago) link
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.
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
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
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:20 (ten years ago) link
loved the latest ggd record
― swmp thing (wins), Friday, 11 October 2013 21:22 (ten years ago) link
shipp namedrop has me intrigued about this
― swmp thing (wins), Friday, 11 October 2013 21:23 (ten years ago) link
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
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:23 (ten years ago) link
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, 11 October 2013 21:25 (ten years ago) link
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:27 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EZ Snappin, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:28 (ten years ago) link
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!
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:30 (ten years ago) link
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)
― swmp thing (wins), Friday, 11 October 2013 21:33 (ten years ago) link
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
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:34 (ten years ago) link
(Is it me or is the board really poppin' today? Even more eclectic mishmash of threads up at the moment.)
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:36 (ten years ago) link
I kicked their arses, they responded. Great team-talk imo
― imago, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:38 (ten years ago) link
drew25kra 1 day agoYes, 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.
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.
― _Rudipherous_, Friday, 11 October 2013 21:56 (ten years ago) link
Streaming:
http://pitchfork.com/advance/261-uzu/
― monster_xero, Tuesday, 22 October 2013 22:09 (ten years ago) link
― _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.
(!!!)
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 00:15 (ten years ago) link
hell, if if there wasn't any music, just the graphics, they'd still be one of my favorite bands going
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 00:16 (ten years ago) link
not boris or deerhoof, gundam grimes
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 00:18 (ten years ago) link
Whalesong sounds amazing
― nostormo, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 11:44 (ten years ago) link
i prefer sonic titan to yamantaka
what is your favorite of the two?
― nostormo, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 11:48 (ten years ago) link
Boredoms for the masses
― nostormo, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 12:07 (ten years ago) link
lack of constant was the biggest problem of yt//stit seems like a problem here too.
no immediate catchy bombastic tubes like Hoshi Neko, sounds mellower but overall fine (1st listen)
― nostormo, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 12:11 (ten years ago) link
catchy bombastic tube = "one", toward the back end
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 13:01 (ten years ago) link
whoever draws the animals (if that's one of them)
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 13:02 (ten years ago) link
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)
― pervilege as a meme (contenderizer), Wednesday, 23 October 2013 13:03 (ten years ago) link
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.
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 23 October 2013 15:08 (ten years ago) link
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.
― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 25 October 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
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
their guitarist presumably!
― imago, Monday, 11 May 2020 15:59 (three years ago) link
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.
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Monday, 11 May 2020 16:01 (three years ago) link
Electric Guitar – Hiroki Tanaka
― sleeve, Monday, 11 May 2020 16:04 (three years ago) link
Ah, thanks. So a seven-string player who was new for this album?
― Feel a million filaments (Sund4r), Monday, 11 May 2020 16:18 (three years ago) link
Yeah. The band absolutely shredded live obv
― imago, Monday, 11 May 2020 17:06 (three years ago) link
The greatest band! Alaska (drums) and Brendan (virtuosic piano) have a side project called Avṛha that I highly recommend too, no studio recordings yet
http://mechanicalforestsound.blogspot.com/2017/11/recording-avrha.html
― it’s been one week since you pissed on me (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 11 May 2020 18:08 (three years ago) link
ah nice! that sounds v exciting. iirc Alaska is suffering from several debilitating injuries that are affecting her drumming so she's exploring a few different songwriting avenues - sucks if so obv but excited by anything she's involved with
― imago, Monday, 11 May 2020 18:19 (three years ago) link
maybe she's completely restored though - let's hope
― imago, Monday, 11 May 2020 18:21 (three years ago) link
absolutely one of the best live bands i've ever seen
i'm not really a live music person and i'd drop everything to go see them if they were playing in my area (and there wasn't a global pandemic happening)
― jaime brooks (james brooks), Tuesday, 12 May 2020 21:06 (three years ago) link
I forgot that when I saw them they were opening for Acid Mothers Temple! It was like a double header, really
― mh, Tuesday, 12 May 2020 22:36 (three years ago) link
God I wish I had seen that show :(
― doktor forstus (Drugs A. Money), Wednesday, 13 May 2020 01:14 (three years ago) link
A little over two years ago I dragged a buddy of mine to see them at a restaurant-pub in downtown Indianapolis. There were *maybe* twenty people in the audience. The band was great of course but the experience was a bit lacking. I guess I don't expect they'll be passing this way again any time soon.
― screator, Wednesday, 13 May 2020 02:45 (three years ago) link