Richard Youngs- Regions Of The Old School (2013)

Richard Youngs- Regions Of The Old School (2013)

The career of Mr. Richard Youngs is a quiet difficult act to follow, an extremely prolific European avant garde composer with a fast arriving string of recordings make following each one an almost titanic achievement, that, given the fact that you are able to recollect them all, then if you do, you have to digest their musical experiments and try to understand them, amazing documents consisting of synth pop, minimalism, country, folk, and recently some wild experiments on extreme music.

Regions Of The Old School exemplifies extreme music, a very abstract document, that kind of channels Youngs minimalist approach into something else, something truly out there, its fascinating having the chance to appreciate how Youngs take this radical chance of direction, previously hinted on other recordings, to really really abrasive extremes, making this, Youngs possible first entry into the world of noise music, abusing the abrasive qualities in the most extended sense of it.

Insomniac Takeover is a maniac theme, and endless vocal repetition goes: “another sleepless night”, and of course you believe what Youngs is insanely repeating in the never ending mantra, if this wasn’t enough, you get minimal glass chiming and dissonant washes of synth, Youngs goes directly to the throat with this theme, making a big rupture between this and some of his previous country flavored recordings, Youngs tactics here are meant to disturb the listener, and during the amazing and painful 15 minutes that the theme lasts, it may become quite a punishment to the casual listener and a complete delight to the most open minded follower of Youngs career, if somebody recall my shared thoughts about Youngs similarities with avant garde master Robert Wyatt, they will be shocked by this crude and rude approach Youngs is giving his music.

Things go a little bit different on Another Zonal Air, with drone applied on a synth in a sonically approach similar to the long extended minimal pieces someone like my admired Charlemagne Palestine, likes to take, here Youngs is not so radical as on the previous track, recalling equal parts Palestine and Niblock, Youngs makes an amazing descent into the depths of minimal hell, and we all go behind him, we receive in exchange, Youngs going really crazy on the synth, exploring static in his music in a very joyous fashion, applying dense washes of electronically treated music to our ears, and giving his voice a break during the 12 minutes the theme lasts.

Celeste continues with the aggressive minimalist electronic approach but this time the sound leans more toward the amazing sounds of Alvin Lucier, a sound experimentalist who used to “throw” sounds toward objects or wall in order to record the results, here Youngs make punishing acute sounds in order to create a quite discomforting aural experience, as our ears are literally pierced by the dissonant beams of sound, while for The Thoughlife, Youngs once against rearrange the scheme and take us into a new unexpected zone, first with a silent, almost “zen like” approach, slowly interrupted by disrupting electronics, and spare beats that hit so deep.

But then, we arrive to the final track in this recording, which holds the amazing title of: My Love Holds The Galaxy In Her Heart, where Richard hits the spot and finally delivers a piece that seems to blend the abrasive awkward nature of the record with a kind of side that we are a little bit more familiar with, Youngs exploits here his Wyatt influenced vocal approach and marries it with the abrasive electronics of the previous themes, and the sum of them seems to work wonders, giving us full exposure to a universe created by Youngs in a very unusual way, we are struck by the power of his amazing voice, and we are taken into a hurricane of menacing sounds, the ever present chimes, some guitar feedback, electronic bass, and whatever other crazy sound device Young decides to include, but mostly I’m  delighted by his monstrous guitar introduced somewhat in the middle of the piece, a guitar free of form and full of intense fury, pure fire added to an already volatile musical mix, this time creating a piece that without a doubt, could put a smile on Wyatt face.

Regions Of The Old School might not be Youngs best effort to date, but for a fan of avant garde music, its quite pleasing and extremely interesting, Mr. Youngs keeps amazing us and his approach to experimenting is boundless, there is no limit to Youngs musical creations, the man is a completely free spirit, fearless and fully confident on his powers, a man that obviously enjoys making music, and whose career is simply reaching near legend status.            

    

 

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