Youth Lagoon Archives - Various Small Flames

Youth Lagoon Announces New Album

Jon Doyle — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 18:05:26 +0000

We first wrote about Trevor Powers’s Youth Lagoon back in June ’11, when he had three songs available and The Year of Hibernation was put on hold after bigger labels became interested. His trajectory since then has been unsurprisingly northward, with his début album achieving huge success (you know, earning rave reviews, appearing on TV commercials). Follow-up Wondrous Bughouse saw a big change, with Powers opting to go on weird on us with a psychedelic, abstract confrontation of what The Year of Hibernation faced so candidly.

Anyway, let’s cut the history lesson. Youth Lagoon has announced a new album, Savage Hills Ballroom. The first track from the album, ‘The Knower’, sees Powers reinvent his sound once again, while still remaining clearly recognisable as Youth Lagoon, this time using a dark pop vibe with quite lovely production to create something luscious and intriguing. You can have a listen below (via NPR):

Savage Hills Ballroom will be released on the 25th September via Fat Possum.

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Newfoundland – Good News Is Too True

Liam Doyle — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 19:37:19 +0000

Fox Food Records are starting to get a reputation for putting out great little cassette releases. Last year the Mirfield-based label scoured the globe to find great music to release, including Oh, Rose (from Washington) and Swedish slow-motion punk from Fanpage. But the label also release music from a little closer to home, namely that of Newfoundland, a man from Wakefield who makes weird atmospheric folk music. After releasing a great little EP last year (also on Fox Food), Newfoundland has recently unveiled a new release, Good News Is Too True.

Opener ‘Border Line’ begins with percussion like clattering metal and the little pop of fireworks, with the whole thing draped in a dreamy gauze of piano and lo-fi faraway vocals. The result sounds something like Meursault meets Youth Lagoon’s debut album. ‘Good Shepherd’ has an Eastern mystic vibe and reminds me a little of Chad VanGaalen, while the acoustic guitar on ‘Eserkiel’ makes for an assured and comforting dream pop track. The final song, ‘Dear Friends’ is my current favourite. As the title suggests, it is about the importance of loved ones. “I could never make it on my own,” he sings.

The whole thing feels like a not-unpleasant dream, not the twisting dark corners of a nightmare but a reassuringly familiar (if somewhat incoherent/illogical) set of memories, all spliced together in sepia tone. The sort of dream you are disappointed to wake up from and try to chase back through the layers of consciousness to no avail.

You can get Good News Is Too True via the Fox Food Records Bandcamp page, either on limited edition cassette (for a measly £3!) or on a pay-what-you-want download.

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Dawn Golden – Still Life

Jon Doyle — Fri, 16 May 2014 16:05:12 +0000

Still Life is the debut LP from Dawn Golden (aka Dexter Tortoriello, who is also one half of Houses). The album has been over three years in the making, and by all accounts, has been the subject of a lot of emotional investment for Tortoriello, as he recently alluded to on his Tumblr page,

“I’ve spent years with these songs when they were only mine, and I emptied myself into them…So if you’re going to listen, please know that this is all of me. A flawed and destructive mess of good intentions. A still life.”

The album is an emotional mixture of futuristic electronics, lo-fi bedroom pop and heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics. It’s also magnificently produced, sounding like a cinematic, widescreen version of the genre. Those of you who like Houses will love Dawn Golden, as will fans of Youth Lagoon, Arrange and the newer stuff by The Antlers. This is an album to be listened to on headphones, or on lonely nighttime drives. Tortoriello has similar ideas:

“I hope you will listen to it on your headphones and keep someone that maybe you miss a lot in your mind while you do. Maybe you will see them soon and I hope that you do.”

Lead single ‘All I Want’ (which you can hear in the player above) is a slow-burning epic, which climaxes in a chaotic, but triumphant, breakdown. The track has recently been given the remix treatment by Diplo too, which you can hear over at Soundcloud. We also featured the video (an excellent sci-fi love story directed by Tyler T. Williams) ‘All I Want’ over at Beatclash, so check that out too.

You can buy Still Life right now via Downtown Records / Mad Decent.

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WTD’s Summer Mix: Part II – Night

Jon Doyle — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 16:58:00 +0000

The second part of our summer mixtape. The idea behind the mix was to capture the cyclical nature of the ideological endless summer; Part I took you from early morning to late afternoon and Part II (hopefully) picks up the baton and carries on into the night. It’s a rather eclectic mix with the four of us here each picking a few songs. The first few songs see you through early evening before an electronic-driven party atmosphere arrives. Catch a lift home with Ryan Gosling through the neon-drenched city and sit outside and watch the stars pass. See through the dead of night with Jason Molina before sunrise with Trouble Books. Hopefully you can then loop both mixes so the ‘day’ starts again. I’ve written a little bit more about the idea here.

Hope this works out.

Part II // Night – Tracklisting:-

26. Gospel – The National
27. Asa – Bry Webb
28. Ponytail – Talons’
29. Late July – Small Houses
30. Seeds of Night – The Cave Singers
31. Swamp Dragon – Spirit Tramp
32. Voyage – Kodak To Graph
33. Brooklyn Sunset – AFTA-1
34. Late Nitez – MedicineHat
35. Lost In Tokyo (Jacques Greene Remix) – Koreless
36. Sun (Midland Re-Edit) – Caribou
37. Higher Ground – TNGHT
38. Nostromo – Fortune Howl
39. Salt of Love – Groundislava
40. Cotton Flower – Future Islands
41. Fineshrine – Purity Ring
42. A Real Hero – College (Feat. Electric Youth)
43. Seventeen – Youth Lagoon
44. Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl – Broken Social Scene
45. Catharsis – The Wandering Lake
46. North – Arrange
47. Singing Sailors – Sad Souls
48. O’ River – The Horse Thieves
49. Long Desert Train – Jason Molina
50. Lurk Underneath – Trouble Books

2012 Summer Mix – Night from Wake The Deaf on 8tracks Radio.

Again, please support the artists on this mix. Our intention is to share our favourite music with others so hopefully you like what you hear and buy some records.

We tried to do something a bit different with this mix and we’d love your opinion on the idea/track listing. Does it work at all or fall flat on it’s face? Do you have any good themes for a future mixtape? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or the clunky Tumblr message system. We would love to hear from you.

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Wake the Deaf’s Top Tracks of 2011

Jon Doyle — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 11:36:00 +0000

As we’ve posted our favourite albums and we’re now on our way through our favourite free releases, we thought it was time we put up our tracks of 2011 too. Each of us has picked the one song that hit us hardest during the year.

Tyler, the Creator – Yonkers

“One of the rare occasions where a song blew me away so much on the first listen that I had to immediately play it again. Fresh, sinister and outright angry with the polarising character/personality/performance to back it up.” Dave

Tyler Butler – Morana

“Winter King has been one of my albums of the year and Morana sums up everything that is good about Tyler Butler. For me, folk is at it’s best when used as a vehicle to tell a story. Butler can write with depth and convey a suitable sense of melancholy but (importantly) also manages to infuse each song with a believable honesty and endearing warmth. The perfect antidote to superficial nature of much of contemporary music.” Jon

Youth Lagoon – July

“This was probably the track that I took most quickly to this year. The way the song slowly builds, gathering momentum before finally hitting a cathartic crescendo. The video I’ve included is a live session version of the song which is brilliantly recorded.” Liam

Richard Knox & Frederic D. Oberland – Sleeping Land (Part I)

“This track transports me to the ends of the earth instantly. Knox and Oberland manage to capture the violent beauty of the Arctic in a way that’s simultaneously emotional and subtle. Pure escapism.” Matt

Jamie XX – Far Nearer

“I latched onto this song the night the London riots really kicked off. I was glued to the news with this looping over and over. It felt so vibrant in comparison to everything else that was going on.” Will

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Youth Lagoon announces album details

Liam Doyle — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 08:36:00 +0000

I wrote about Youth Lagoon back in June when there was still some uncertainty regarding the release of his debut album, The Year of Hibernation. However he recently announced that the album will be released on September 27th by Lefse Records in Europe and Fat Possum in the rest of the world. I’d highly recommend that you pre-order the album from one of the links above and if you aren’t familiar with the handful of tracks already released by Youth Lagoon, to check out his Bandcamp and Soundcloud.

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Youth Lagoon

Liam Doyle — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:01:00 +0000

Youth Lagoon is 22-year old Trevor Powers from Boise, Idaho. He makes bedroom pop in a similar vein to the young man I mentioned in my last post. However, Youth Lagoon is a different animal to Arrange, especially in that it seems to hold a certain optimistic sparkle amidst the swirling melodies and emotional lyrics. The current material reminds me of artists/bands such as Magic Man ans Sun Airway who make warm electro pop which is improved greatly by wistful (or at least less upbeat) vocals. Despite only having released 3 tracks to date, the promise is there to see, and I for one can’t wait to hear the upcoming release, scheduled for July 5^th on Juno Beach Records (Label of the folks of BIRP!).

Listen to all 3 tracks at Soundcloud or pick up 2 tracks for free at Bandcamp.

UPDATE: Trevor got in touch with us to say that the album will not be released on Juno Beach and therefore the release date is yet to be decided. It seems he has managed to attract the attention on other labels and has decided (along with Lance Smith from Juno Beach I must add) that a much wider distribution is achievable. Hopefully all goes to plan, we’ll keep you updated!

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