Berlin-based post-punk band The Underground Youth, led by Blackpool-born
musician and author Craig Dyer, return with their twelfth studio album
‘Décollage’. Self-written, recorded and produced by Dyer, the album is
an exercise in artistic deconstruction in both name and form, marking a
decisive musical shift. “‘Décollage is the art of creating an image by
ripping, tearing away or removing pieces of an original existing work’.
My idea was to apply this technique to music”, he explains. “I built
walls of static coated hip-hop drum samples, layers of Lee Hazlewood
style string arrangements and Serge Gainsbourg inspired mellotron
melodies, then I began tearing away at these beautiful, chaotic walls of
noise, exposing a new sound for The Underground Youth.”
The result, Dyer says, is “a trip-hop infused soundtrack to a collection
of lyrics dealing with adoration, ancestry, originality, hallucinations
of revolution and a hope that something better can be born from the
ashes of the horror that exists in our world.” From moments of ghostly
minimalism to sweeping crescendos of noise and melody, there is a
shadowy, dreamlike quality to the
songs here. If its predecessor ‘Nostalgia’s Glass’ (2023) mined a more
introspective nostalgia, ‘Décollage’ feels more hauntological in nature –
tearing apart and re-transforming what once was in search of a future
left spinning from reel-to-reel on warped and distorted old tape.
Alongside Dyer, The Underground Youth is comprised of drummer and visual
artist Olya Dyer, guitarist Leonard Kaage (who also assisted with
post-production on the record) and bassist Samira Zahidi. Initially
formed as a solo project by Dyer in 2008, the band has sinced released
11 – now 12 – studio albums and 4 EPs, evolving a unique sound that has
over the years ranged from cinematic lo-fi psychedelia and raw
melancholic post-punk to gothic folk-noir. Throughout they have
maintained a devoted global following continuously built upon by the
band’s extensive touring through Europe, Asia and North America.
Tracklist:
1. You (The Feral Human Thunderstorm) (5:07) 2. One Of The Dreamers (4:41) 3. I Was There (4:36) 4. From The Ashes Of Our Age (3:23) 5. Father (4:57) 6. Calliope (4:26) 7. Your Beloved Hollywood (4:20) 8. Believe In Something (6:24)
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