Richard Youngs - Regions of the Old School [MIE - 2013]Glasgow based artist Richard Youngs has had a steady stream of output since the early 90's playing with a diverse array of groups and releasing many solo records. He is a multi-instrumentalist and has worked in as many styles as instruments he plays, even releasing an a cappella record. Regions of the Old School is Youngs' third release with the London based label MIE. This five track album clocks in at over an hour and is rather long winded in general, that being said it is not always a bad thing to be long winded. The first two songs on the album did very little for me and I was beginning to get disappointed with the album but then the third track came in… Because I don't have much positive to say about the beginning of the album I'm going to start here with the third track "Celeste". It is the briefest and beautifulest song on the disc starting with glitchy vocal-like scraping and subtle bells. It is peppered with distant thuds and piercing highs tones. Stuttering vocals arise from the glitchiness accompanied by Risset bells and the whole dream-like path is like music for a vocalist deconstructed. I has a sadness throughout all of the synthetic minimal arrangement and is truly lovely. The next track, also a highlight, begins with odd bending bells that move around the stereo field, almost like the sound of wind chimes heard on too much cough medicine. Out of nowhere wooden flutes and living zippers from space join in while electronic squirrels scurry past. The use of synth is more skillful on this track than the others and the strange mix of noises give the song a feel of being simultaneously indoors and outdoors, sonically bizarre. Heavy bass thuds give one the impression of coming climax which does not arrive. This lengthy track is contemplative and pretty with many complimentary elements that differ greatly from each other, overall a great musical trip. The last number begins with a spastic rhythmic loop that almost feels like a drone. Vocals come in sounding very separate from the music and lacking the passion of which the lyrics seem to imply. Fortunately the vocals are short lived. Enter chime loop which sounds like a toy train, but then a second chime loop starts and creates interesting and more complex rhythmic patterns. Noisey guitars similar to Alex Fergusson's style tear through the song and give it a great industrial feel. There are great contrasts in this song as the hypnotic rhythms become more like bass drones and morph back to blast beats, the whole time changing but only in perception. With the exception on the first two songs this is a great 2 LP set, I really dug the creative and diverse use of layering many unchanging lines and loops. All in all the songs are good but could of been a bit shorter. Jean-Paul Garnier
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