Sorry about the long hiatus period on the music blogging; life (namely school work, my job and revision) got in the way. This is just a review to get me back into the swing of things, with hopefully more album and EP reviews along the way in summer.
Artist: East India Youth
Album: Total Strife Forever
Released: 2014
Label: Stolen Records
Genre: Electronic
Score: 7/10
East India Youth is the solo project of multi instrumentalist and UK producer William Doyle and Total Strife Forever is his debut full length LP under the 'East India Youth' pseudonym, which has received critical acclaim: even being short-listed for a Mercury Music Prize.
Total Strife forever dabble mostly in synthesizer heavy, electronic music but there are wider influences on display here: from psychedelic rock as seen in the first interlude of 4 (Total Strife Forever I), to club-esque techno on Hinterland, classical music and even some kraut-rock as well.
The album starts incredibly strongly in my opinion. The first two tracks being very tense, atmospheric instrumental tracks that are very heavy in synthesizer, Total Strife Forever I being the most tense, with pulsating, dissonant chords being played over a very light, airy melody to it. The song gradually builds and builds into the track Dripping Down. This is one of the more pop tinged tracks on the LP, and one of few featuring Doyle's vocals. It is a sweet song about love, with the chorus featuring the lines 'find new love, dripping down your soul' which is backed by very warm synthesisers and harmonised back-up vocals. The song also features a driving beat from programmed drums and a great bass line and is one of the better single style tracks to come off the album.This is quickly followed by a 6 minute techno influenced track Hinterland. This is one of the more left field tracks being very night club friendly, in my opinion, but a very solid track none the less. Heaven, how long follows, with beautifully relaxed synthesizer arpeggios that have such a warm tone to them they wouldn't sound out of place on a CHVRCHES record.
However, I do have my gripes with this album, For instance on the same track, Heaven, How Long. The start of this song is a fantastic, building, psychedelic tinged track with a soaring vocal melody on the lyrics 'heaven how long', a clear highlight of the album. But half way through the instrumentation changes completely to a bass and drum driven krautrock influenced track, which wouldn't sound too out of place on a Xhol Caravan or a NEU! record, It's a left hook that you certainly get used to, but it requires a lot of listens before it starts to make sense. Moreover, A Song For A Grandular Piano also really confuses me for the most part. Understandably Doyle wants to show off his range of influences with a weird fusion of a somewhat virtuosic classical sounding piano piece in the background however it has very bizarre electronic sounds over the top, with a frankly horrific vocal line to the forefront of the track, Doyle both unable and unwilling to stick to the melody he wrote himself; probably because, although a sweet ,melody if played correctly, he's not vocally talented enough. It's just not needed. This track does, however, have the best build towards the end of it, a pleasant surprise to say the least. This does, on the other hand lead to the worst outro track I've heard on a record in a while, Total Strife Forever IV. There is an awful noisy crackling sound that reminds me of a Merzbow record, which takes away any interest for me at the start of the track. The synthesiser lead has not got a very pleasant tone to it either - it's a real dampening closer on what is a solid debut record.
Overall, this is a solid debut record which never fails to throw a left hook at any opportunity - to a mixed bag of results. At it's best, this is a psychedelic influenced electronic song with really left field singles that have incredible melodies to them. At it's worst, it's somewhat bland, with a mish-mash of influences coming through that don't quite fit. The main problem with this album, I fear, is Doyle's vocals. While solid, they aren't quite as good or as consistent as some of his peers in the genre, such as CHVRCHES, while the song writing is better.
But it's just my opinion right? If you have any thoughts on this album, highlights and low-lights do tell me, I'd love to here what you guys think. Also, if you have any song or album recommendations, let me know and I'll see if I feel strongly enough to review it!
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