Staff Reviews

Richard Youngs - Under Stellar Stream

Review by Alexander Tudor

On his new record for Jagjaguwar, it’s a surprise to see how minimal Richard Youngs has become. Over the six tracks, mostly running to six minutes apiece, Youngs accompanies his simple chants with sparse piano lines, and what sound like singing bowls, bells, and bowed cymbals, to mesmeric effect. »

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the inimitable richard youngs returns with a collection of minimalist, neo-druid hymns and chants for the minutiae of fatherhood and homelife on jag jaguwar. once again proving himself a master of minimalist composition, youngs also takes leaps forward as a lyricist on 'under stellar stream', reminiscent of the list incantations of allen ginsberg. with this comes a change in youngs' voice, now less pleading, deeper and more assured. in these atonal, spatial arrangements, each phrase is granted the room to work into the cerebral cortex. for more than 20 years, the uk's richard youngs has been at the forefront of progressive minimalism, through solo home recording projects, through collaborations with the likes of simon wickham-smith and makoto kawabata (of acid mothers temple), to special live performances playing bass with jandek.
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