East India Youth | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Connecting the dots between Krautrock, ambient, Berlin-era Bowie, and dance culture via Londons Docklands, producer and artist East India Youth (aka William Doyle) first came to prominence in 2012 after handing a demo to John Doran -- one of the editors of the esoteric U.K. online music website The Quietus -- at a gig. Doyles intricate and awe-inspiring sounds prompted the website to set up their own label to release his material. Hailing from Bournemouth, U.K., Doyles musical past was based in an indie band called Doyle & the Fourfathers. Self-described as a "tweedy" group, Doyle became uninspired by guitar music and found inspiration from electronic and dance culture. He subsequently quit the group and started work on his own sketches and demos. In 2013, he released the Hostel EP via the Quietus Phonographic Corporation to critical acclaim. Encouraged by the positive reaction to the release -- as well as the continued patronage of The Quietus -- he started to prepare his debut album, Total Strife Forever. Released in early 2014 on Stolen Records, it was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and Doyle found himself being lauded as one of the most exciting crossover acts of that year. That fall, he issued an expanded version of the album that included his nearly hourlong soundtrack for the 1916 film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which had been prepared and performed live for a screening of the film at Isle of Wights Bestival festival the previous year. Just a year after his debut, his equally impressive second full-length album, the electropop Culture of Volume, was issued on XL Recordings. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 3 Title: Hostel Released: 2013 Tracks: 4 Duration: 26:20 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Looking for Someone (04:18) 2 Heaven, How Long (06:13) 3 Coastal Reflexions (09:28) 4 Heaven, How Long (Oh the Gilt remix) (06:21) |
 | Album: 2 of 3 Title: Total Strife Forever Released: 2014-01-13 Tracks: 11 Duration: 51:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Glitter Recession (04:19) 2 Total Strife Forever I (06:35) 3 Dripping Down (04:14) 4 Hinterland (06:16) 5 Heaven, How Long (06:09) 6 Total Strife Forever II (02:55) 7 Looking for Someone (04:15) 8 Midnight Koto (03:13) 9 Total Strife Forever III (04:41) 10 Song for a Granular Piano (04:01) 11 Total Strife Forever IV (04:25) |
 | Album: 3 of 3 Title: Culture of Volume Released: 2015-04-06 Tracks: 10 Duration: 55:19 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 The Juddering (04:39) 2 End Result (05:17) 3 Beaming White (03:53) 4 Turn Away (04:07) 5 Hearts That Never (06:47) 6 Entirety (04:21) 7 Carousel (06:22) 8 Don’t Look Backwards (04:57) 9 Manner of Words (10:18) 10 Montage Resolution (04:34) |
| Culture of Volume : Allmusic album Review : Released just a year after East India Youths distinctive indie electronic debut, the Mercury Prize-nominated Total Strife Forever, Culture of Volume presents another blend of Eno-inspired synth compositions and thoughtful electropop songs. However, where the former was mostly instrumentals with a few songs, Culture of Volume offers the reverse for a poppier and more melodic, but equally hypnotic and well-crafted sophomore LP. While East India Youth had been essentially a solitary project for multi-instrumentalist William Doyle, he brought in Graham Sutton to mix this time, George Hider recorded Doyles vocals, and Hannah Peel provided acoustic strings. Their work polishes an adventurous landscape where, without changing the records pensive tone, tempos, complexity, and pitch range shift regularly. This variability begins right from the contrasting opening two tracks. "The Juddering" serves as an instrumental takeoff, both as the albums opener and in the sense of sound; its slow-building, mechanical, turbine effect mingles pitches and noise until a simple melody coalesces. Its followed by the sparse song "End Result" ("The end result is not what was in mind"), melodic and vocal-led with welcoming, blunt bell tones. The record never settles into a full-on catchy, Pet Shop Boys-type affair, or settles in at all, though moments are remindful of 80s British dance-pop, such as the trance-infused "Beaming White" with a far-reaching, Erasure-like melody. Instead, despite its melody-friendly pop tendencies, expect the unexpected, like the over ten-minute "Manner of Words" with its musical metaphors ("Turn this dull roar down/I hear it all the time/And I know now/It soon becomes a shrill clarion") and three-and-a-half-minute droning coda. The instrumental, industrial-influenced dance track "Entirety" enters the album halfway through with thumping four on the floor only to lead into the high romantic drama of the beats-free "Carousel," which uses space and slowly built tension to underscore a dynamic melody. What ties the songs together is the unresolved tone and unbalance itself, from thoughtful, uneasy lyrics ("A crooked frame circling us/We strained to learn just how it turned round"), to sharp-edged synth sounds, lopsided rhythms, and noise effects even on the softer tunes. The result is a constant if ambient-tinted instability and sense of epicness. As a whole, Culture of Volume is an intense and fascinating album, one that leaves sequel-like anticipation for what else East India Youth may have in store. | ||