SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH / RICHARD YOUNGS
5 Years
(VHF) Used CD $8.00
Five ten-minute tracks recorded a year apart, all of which reflect the duo’s long-established signature mix of “real human” instrumental expression and explosive musique concrète sensibility. “2002” starts with several minutes of looped snippets building up subtle patterns as they slide in and out of phase, changing to a tremulous chord organ driven section. “2003” starts with a drastically filtered base of hand drumming, with full-on hand-on-the-knob tweaking, before giving way to an over the top fuzz organ solo that sounds like Mike Ratledge on 200 rpm. “2004” is a throwback of ululating Metallic-Sonatas-era noise. “2005” is based on electronically treated percussion, the sparest and most minimal track of the bunch. “2006” finishes where we started, with a baffling electronic test pattern drone that segues into a section of beautiful, weird ambience. Sealed
Advent
(Table Of The Elements) Used CD $4.00
Privately issued in 1988 in a batch of 300, the 1997 reissue of this uncompromising, highly-individualized work earned a spot on Alan Licht’s “minimalism top 10” list. The primary distinguishing characteristic of the 41-minute composition, divided into three segments, is a hypnotic, two-chord piano figure that pulses with limited variation. In Part I Youngs makes his approach wielding only his plaintive vocals, repeatedly pleading “don’t fall apart,” in a manner that suggests he’s not directly addressing anyone outside his own skull. The heavy artillery comes out in Parts II and III, where extensive surgery (without an anesthetic) performed on a diseased oboe or two, conjures unearthly noises from every sector of the instrument’s established range and beyond, until he finally resorts to a full frontal electric guitar assault that unleashes rapturously anarchic sheets of sound, filling the air with red sparks as Youngs sharpens and bends all his blades in a futile attempt to overtake the unyielding piano.
Amaranthine
(Mie Music - 009) LP $12.00
Built around layered percussion and Youngs’s vocals, the asymmetrically patterned underlay is scored for drums, household objects and handheld percussion; at points scything fuzz guitar cuts through and deep synths bubble up out of nowhere before dissipating into solo shakuhachi. “Immersive and free-flowing music,” says Pitchfork. Edition of 500.
Bad Words
(Chocolate Monk - choc.436) CDR $8.00 (Out-of-stock)
Richard “The Riddim” Youngs returns to Chocolate Monk and he is none too pleased. Launched at Colour Out of Space 2019, this is 69 minutes of pitch corrected vocal, in the modern style. High concept derives from a conversation with Dylan Nyoukis concerning some popular musical tastes, and the collection’s title is an elusive reference to the lyrical content. Numbered edition of 75, with button.
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH / RICHARD YOUNGS
Enedkeg
(Majora) Used LP $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
An ambitious collaboration from 1996, one of the duo's finest, exploring abstraction, the scary darkness of industrialized ambiance, and elusive spiritual vibes. They get there via otherworldly drones, tinkling floatation, sidereal hisses, hellish moans, cryptic tides, flashing metallic clangor, and organ-like drone.
NEIL CAMPBELL / RICHARD YOUNGS
How The Garden Is
(Harpendon - HP271) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Campbell and Youngs have recorded together in various forms (most notably A Band and the Durian, Durian LP), but How the Garden Is is their first true collaboration. Recorded over two days in the spring of 2000, this LP is mainly acoustic, hovering in, around, and between Youngs's meditative solo work and the density of Vibracathedral Orchestra ... stripped bare and built up around itself. Edition of 300. Jacket is near-mint with beginning of two-inch split on top edge of jacket; vinyl is mint. Includes 2-inch insert.
I Dream Of Mezzanine / Cloudplanes
(Spring Press - SP11) LP $13.50 (Out-of-stock)
A commanding new exploration of voice and electronics, “with vocals, acoustic guitar, sleigh bells, tape, graphic equalizer, computer and epinette des vosges scored for two sidelong pieces,” marvels our friends at Volcanic Tongue. “The beats are genuinely cracked, stumbling over each other, breaking in and out of rhythm ... while … layers of vocals…, distant, electronically treated moans, and expressionist breath [frame] mantric / hypnotic phrases, almost giving the album the feel of a more pastoral Throbbing Gristle. The second side has a more lunar, psychedelic appeal.” Edition of 300
MAKOTO KAWABATA / RICHARD YOUNGS
Makoto Kawabata / Richard Youngs
(VHF - VHF64) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
Duets by the leader of Acid Mothers Temple and the slightly less available Glasgow librarian in a relaxed yet psychedelic mood. Throughout the five untitled tracks, simple modal melodies are performed on acoustic guitar, autoharp, organ, voice and other instruments rubbing against the swirling production and layers of shifting haze. Youngs’s identifiable voice, guitar and autoharp greet Kawabata’s echo treatments on the first track, while track three reverses the process with Youngs’s minor key picking cutting against Kawabata’s thick, visceral drones. Tracks two, four and five all use a base of fingerpicked guitar melodies, layering organ, synth, tape effects and echo.
SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH / RICHARD YOUNGS
Red And Blue Bear
(VHF) Used CD $3.00
A simple, charming children’s story (included in the 20-page color booklet) written, illustrated and, on the CD, performed by R!&S! Anglo-folky laments, bizarre improv, Casio madness, found sounds.
MATTHEW BOWER / RICHARD YOUNGS
Relayer
(VHF) Used CD $5.00
“A dense set of layered studio recordings from 2002 where rainbows of color and textures — string drone, percussion, bleeps, and the unidentifiable — compete in a mix devoid of the traditional “lead with backing” schema. Many tracks have the kind of welcoming electronic bed seldom heard since the demise of Harmonia, with ring modulated fuzz bleeping away over a chugging but non-oppressive beat. Elsewhere, there’s Youngs’s Riley-style organ ping-pong, a little virtuoso kalimba, thick wads of analog synth.... You know where this is going.”
Richard Youngs
(Spring Press - SP20) 10-inch (lathe cut) $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Pruned and interwoven vocals, live percussion, drum machines, organ and electronics that form a disorienting triptych. Monosyllabic motifs become cathartic codes, wildy modulated synths fall in and out of phase until everything is liquid. Another beautiful surprise from this maverick of the underground. Listen to some of it here: https://soundcloud.com/the-spring-press/richard-youngs-luther-side-b. Edition of 70.
Sapphie
(Oblique) Used CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
The 1998 fifth solo album by the man described by a sensitive romantic at Melody Maker as “grand-meister of contemporary British improv, spiritual son of Eddie Prévost and Maddy Prior; gentle manipulator of English hymn-notics and religious incantations … poet-seducer of souls.” Classical guitar and voice that fans of reclusive sages like Nick Drake, Anne Briggs and Robert Wyatt will appreciate.
MATTHEW BOWER / RICHARD YOUNGS
Site / Realm
(VHF) LP $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Elemental guitar noise, feedback washes, bowed cymbals from 1994. Silkscreened fold-over jacket.