THE YOUNG GODS
ONLY HEAVEN (1995)
320 KBPS
The Young Gods is one of the most interesting bands nowadays. They escape all boundaries and styles with a mixture of industrial, psychedelic rock and ambient textures that no other band has achieved to make with such brilliance.
It's a pity actually that this band's records are almost out of stock everywhere, cos they have made some of the most innovative and inspired albums of the 90's, even though they are ignored by media.
They have usually recognised as the band that invented sampled music, and even though may be a bit of an exageration, what is undeniable is that they were one of the first and definetely one of the best in handling sampled instruments.
This album is full of good songs, and that's what an album is supposed to contain. All of them are different enough to make the entire listening a very satisfying experience, and similar enough to give it a touch of conceptual unity.
If you ar familiar with the Young Gods, you'll know that with their previous album (TV Sky) they had made the most guitar-based album of their career, in a somewhat Ministry style. well, sort of.
With Heaven Only they combine those guitars with ambient passages and electronic devices.
Some songs are just short sketches ('Outside', 'Gardez les esprits') of no more than 1 minute long. Maybe fillers, it depends, but they are not bad at least.
There are a couple of pseudo-industrial guitar based songs ('Strangel', 'Speed of Night', 'Kissing the Sun') which are very energetic, but never as raw as for example Skinny Puppy or Ministry. They usually have ambient passages which make an interesting contrast with the guitars. The voice is energetic and with personality, but never disgusting. 'Kissing the Sun' is very catchy actually, a very good song.
Other songs are more electronic ('Donnez Les esprits', 'The dreamhouse', 'Lontaine') and are probably some of the best, since the electronics are innovative enough to delight us but not so cold as to kill the emotion transmitted by the melody. In fact, The Young Gods aer very good at melodies, and their songs sound to me very emotional. The most emotional of all is 'Child in a Tree', an acoustic guitar ballad full of melancholy.
And not to forget 'Moon evolutions', a more than 15 minute suit where they remind me of U2 and Pink Floyd with an industrial feeling, very interesting indeed, a song divided into 3 parts with a long ambient beatless passage in the middle.
I'm never sure which album I like best by The Young Gods, and that's a good sign I guess. But definetely Heaven Only is one of my favourite. If you think industrial music is just unlistenable music with distorted voices... or Mansonesque charade... give The Young Gods what they deserve... many listenings. For me, they are nowadays what Can were in the 70's.
1. Outside
2. Strangel
3. Speed of Night
4. Donnez les Esprits
5. Moon Revolutions
6. Kissing the Sun
7. Dreamhouse
8. Lointaine
9. Gardez les Esprits
10. Child in the Tree
Bonus Track
11. Kissing the Sun (Orange Mix)
1 comment:
I am a huge fan of The Young Gods and what you say is only too true: it has to be one of the most sadly under recognised formation of the 90s. Their output was consistently innovative, including their more recent releases.
Maybe part of the reason the never caught on as much as they should have was the lack of a guitar player on stage. I know it sounds kinda dumb, but I was always told, for instance, that when Laibach came in America, they had to have some make believe guitar player on stage to get any attendance. The Young Gods never gave in to that, and for a public not used to guitarless sonic barrages, their shows might have proved unsettling.
Your blog looks like a treasure mine, I'll have to spend a little more time here.
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