East India Youth - Total Strife Forever

On the first couple of listens I am loving the debut LP by William Doyle as East India Youth. It has elements of many things I love, electronic systems music, four to the floor electronica, warped left of centre pop and an a vocal that is equal parts papier-mache vulnerable and 3am lonely ache. Some in it reminds me of the first Matt Johnson/The The Record - Burning Blue Soul, well if Matt Johnson had recorded in 2013 as opposed to 1981. The mix of fractured instrumental, vocal looping and loneliness places it in the same sonic space just 32 years apart. Total Strife forever could be Burn Blue Soul's musical baby . Oddly both were written/recorded in the East End of London so it might be something haunting the air. James Blake is a name that keeps cropping up in the reviews but I think this much more interesting sonically and emotional than that.

The closing Total Strife Forever IV builds up from static and distorted strings to a stirring organ hook and chugging noise undertow, it is a blissful hazy way to finish the record.

One for the Mercury Prize in 2014?

The Soundcloud track Heaven, How Long showcases his ability to meld these disparate strands into a wonderful whole.



Some good reviews of the LP here

http://www.metacritic.com/music/total-strife-forever/east-india-youth

http://thequietus.com/articles/14252-east-india-youth-total-strife-forever-review

Nice playlist of tracks that inspired the writing of the LP via Q Magazine

http://news.qthemusic.com/2014/01/playlist_-_east_india_youths_s.html

Article about forming a record label to release the LP as no-one would sign East India Youth
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-siva/east-india-youth-the-soun_b_4589574.html

Doll Boy – Ghost Stations

Doll Boy – Ghost Stations 

There is something about travelling in London on the Tube that makes me want to soundtrack the journey with electronica. Born and bred in London I find the Tube and endlessly fascinating and enjoyable way to travel, mind I no-longer have to do it every working day and tend to avoid the peaks of rush hour commuting.

My recent soundtrack to Tube travel has been Lost Stations by Dollboy. The songs are a requiem/reflection on “lost” Tube Stations in London and Berlin. Empty or abandoned spaces are another one of my obsessions so an LP about abandoned Tube stations, well what’s not to love about that.

The LP was released back in 2010 on Second Language Music records but I only stumbled across it just before Christmas this year. 

"Dollboy is the alias of London-based musical polymath Oliver Cherer who has released three albums (of both electronic music and more orthodox song-based material) under that moniker for the likes of Different Drummer, Arable and Static Caravan..."

Imagine a lovingly blended mix of field records, electronic chatter, Eno style ambient washes and Eric Satie piano and you’re in the right place.  The songs rotate and mutate around long brass tones, clicks, hisses, bass piano notes and the ebbing of slow electronic pulses. The pieces use silence to great effect, the balance between the rattle of the tube trains and the dolorous nature of their empty life’s since closure are keenly felt in the music.

I would love to get the chance to wander around the empty stations with this as my soundtrack, a homage to forgotten places no-longer of commercial use but full of memory and loss.

The closed London Underground Stations that feature on the record are:

• Down Street
• York Road
• South Kentish Town
• British Museum
• Brompton Road
• Strand

More information on Ghost Stations in London- http://www.underground-history.co.uk/deeplevel.php

The Berlin Stations that receive the musical treatment are:

• Warschauer strasse
• Jannowitzbrucke
• Potsdamer platz
• Unter den linden

More information Ghost Stations in Berlin - http://www.slowtravelberlin.com/a-trip-through-berlins-ghost-stations/

Close your eyes and picture yourself in the Berlin of Christopher Isherwood’s novels.

Dollboy has a great Soundcloud page here where you can hear a live versions of LP tracks that can be downloaded - https://soundcloud.com/second-language/dollboy-ghost-stations-live and track 10 Potsdamer Platz for free.