I'm just back from Leeds, where a small group of us blogging types (and available partners) assembled for a couple of days to hang out, waffle relentlessly, amble aimlessly, imbibe fine ales and scoff top scran. These occasions are always over far too quickly and, before we knew it, hugs and handshakes were being exchanged as we headed off in separate directions for home. In spite of working in a busy supermarket, my life these days is a fairly solitary one, so I particularly treasure such get-togethers with like minded souls - a pinprick of brightness in an increasingly dark and unpleasant world.
As my train trundled south-eastwards out of Leeds, I cranked up some tunes to soundtrack the passing scenery and my melancholy mood. By chance one of the first to hit my eardrums was 'Spin Me Endless in the Universe' by Richard Youngs, which perfectly suited my disposition in that moment. As of 2026 Youngs has put out close to 300 albums, ranging from electronic squalls to banging drum & bass, musique concrète to epic ambient drones. This 2013 performance, however, finds Richard alone in a studio with just an acoustic guitar and his own untreated voice. It's a thing of beauty and is dedicated to the BlogCon'26 posse.
2022 was an uncharacteristically quiet year for the usually uber-prolific Richard Youngs, but on January 1st a fantastic new, name your own price, digital album 'Live at the Creation Room' appeared on his Bandcamp page, followed on February 1st by 'Back to the Creation Room'. I sense a theme developing. I wonder what the day after tomorrow will bring?
Here's Richard in PIL-era John Lydon jamming with Jaki Liebezeit mode from January's release.
'This is a Mindfulness Drill' by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (featuring vocal turns by Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius and Moses Sumney) is a 2021 re-imagining of 'Sapphie', a 1998 LP by Richard Youngs. 'Sapphie', an album very close to my heart, contains three long songs, including the breathtaking 'Soon It Will Be Fire', my entry point to the great man's music. I almost went with Van Etten's version of 'The Graze of Days' today, which is pretty darned impeccable, but instead here's Sumney's beautiful reading of 'Soon It Will Be Fire', followed by the achingly raw original. I honestly can't recommend these albums highly enough.
One way and another, the tail end of last year was hectic time for your humble author, so it's no surprise I suppose that I managed to completely miss a couple of otherwise essential additions to The Swede's personal house of wax. One I've managed to pick up, but the other I missed the boat on, so it's over to Discogs and eBay I go to track that particular beauty down. The LP I did acquire, later rather than sooner, was 'Twelve of Hearts' by long time favourite of this parish Richard Youngs, in cahoots with Daniel O'Sullivan, released on the OGenesis label in December. I'll come back to that in due course. Today's tune is another to feature the always prolific Mr Youngs, this time in his guise as one quarter of AMOR. I ordered their new LP (a joint creation with LEMUR) way back in November and I'm reliably informed that it's winging its way towards as I type. Fortunately, the complementary download is already safely ensconced on my hard-drive and, swipe me, it's flippin' magnificent.
There are only 500 copies out there, so if you're tickled, don't shilly-shally. (Here)
Richard Youngs is a man rarely known for looking back throughout his 170-odd album (and counting) career, so it's a particular joy to find him circling around to rekindle the terrific AMOR project once again. A new 4 track 12" EP is due for release in January, resulting from pre-lockdown Glasgow sessions in cahoots with Norwegian combo LEMUR. 'Unravel' is the first taste - order the EP here.
For a number of reasons, my head hasn't really been in the blogging game for some time now. Having said that, over at Before the Streets Were Aired (my other place), I'm just about to sail through the 1100 consecutive daily posts mark - where did that time go? Meanwhile, here on the good ship Unthought of Though Somehow, I'm doing my best to keep the blighter afloat by joining in with the weekly Monday Long Song fun, at the very least. Where to from here? I couldn't really say right at the moment.
I can say that it's been a very good year for music though. At the end of both 2016 and 2017 I bemoaned the fact that I'd spent the previous 12 months listening to more old music than new, but I'm pleased to report that that particular trend has reversed in 2018 and I ended up with a long-list of around 40 albums to choose from for selection in this year's round-up. Tomorrow I might pull a slightly different handful of records from the shelves, but for now, for today, (in alphabetical order) here are twelve of the many LPs that rocked my world in 2018. I've included a few tunes at the end, but click on the individual links to learn/hear more.
AMOR - Sinking Into a Miracle The first of two Richard Youngs related releases on this list, both issued within the past month. The Glasgow collective follow their incendiary pair of 2017 12" singles with a stonking debut LP. Mutant disco anyone?
The Coke Dares - Fake Lake 35 superbly crafted songs, bursting with more ideas than many bands can boast in the course of an entire career.
Kiki Pau - Hiisi From melancholic pastoral loveliness to full-on poly-rhythmic wigouts and beyond, interspersed with occasional soothing birdsong interludes - what's not to love?
Massage - Oh Boy Do you, like me, love bands like The Feelies, The Go-Betweens & The Clean and music released on labels like Sarah Records and Flying Nun? Of course you do, in which case you'll probably love 'Oh Boy' too.
Brigid Mae Power - The Two Worlds A remarkable album that creates and inhabits its own universe. Gothic, hymn-like, confessional and fairly harrowing in places.
Alasdair Roberts - What News Another year, another remarkable Alasdair Roberts LP. His first of solely traditional songs since 2010.
Richard Youngs - Memory Ain't No Decay Only issued last week, the 5th of Richard's eight 2018 releases I've picked up this year - and it's very possibly the best of the lot. I've already pre-ordered his next LP, due in January.
Since 1990 Richard Youngs has amassed a back-catalogue stretching to well beyond 150 titles. There have been at least seven new releases this year alone, eight if you include 'Sinking Into a Miracle', the barnstorming debut LP by Youngs fronted Glasgow collective AMOR - and I've already pre-ordered another new solo album scheduled for January 2019. Depending on where you choose to dip your toe, you'll find that Richard's work might touch on spoken word, acoustic avant-folk, mutant disco, musique concrète or all out sonic dissonance. Here, embracing the second of those loosely defined musical stylings, is the achingly raw 'Soon It Will Be Fire', from his 1998 album 'Sapphie'.
'Imagine Richard Youngs as the junior member of a cabal of prolific and puritanical English musician-mystics, including The Fall’s Mark E Smith, Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill, Martin Carthy and The Clangers’ composer Vernon Elliot, and still his nature will elude you.' - Stewart Lee.
Over the course of 150+ releases since 1990, Richard Youngs has shown a consistent disregard for predictability or genre specification, his music stretching from spoken word and acoustic avant-folk on the one hand, through to musique concrète and all out sonic dissonance on the other. Last year, fronting Glasgow supergroup AMOR, Youngs ventured into mutant disco, via a pair of outstanding 12" singles, 'Paradise' and 'Higher Moment', released on Night School Records
Youngs recorded his new LP, 'Belief', alone at home. It's the sort of idiosyncratic pop record Robert Wyatt might have made in the early 1970s, if he'd had access to contemporary technology. Tim Burgess describes 'Belief' as being 'sublime gnostic pop' and has issued the LP on his O' Genesis label.
It'll be among my albums of the year come December, without question.
Five months on from their first release, 'Paradise' (here), AMOR return with single number two, 'Higher Moment'. Driven by discordant piano and looping bass, Richard Young's distinct vocals exhibit a hypnotic, 'almost Utopian positivity' throughout the 11 minutes of the tune. Once again the 12" is issued in a limited run of 500. AMOR is a very special collaboration, don't miss out. Order it here.
I couldn't make it to the bloggers summit in Glasgow a couple of weeks back, but I've enjoyed reading every subsequent account of the bash from those that did. One of the sweetest stories to emerge from the weekend has to be that of Brian's meeting with Stephen Pastel in Monorail Music - I'm sure that everyone is familiar with the glorious tale by now, but just in case, read all about it here. I've never been into Monorail's store (hell, I've never been to Glasgow), but I have made several purchases from that esteemed establishment, the latest of which arrived through the post on Tuesday morning.
Your humble author with his latest slab'o'wax
As is so often the case these days, Swiss Adam over at Bagging Area was the cause of my financial downfall, albeit via the good offices of Andrew Weatherall's Music's Not For Everyone NTS radio show. As usual, I listened to the show in fits and starts, pausing to further investigate any tunes that caught my ear along the way, one in particular stopped me in my tracks though. The voice was very familiar, even if the musical setting wasn't. The song in question was entitled 'Paradise' and credited to a new combo, AMOR, although I immediately recognised the vocalist as being the uber-prolific Richard Youngs. The AMOR project finds Youngs' dry, somewhat disconnected vocal laid over an mutant-disco backdrop, a combination that hooked me instantly. I'd located and purchased a copy of the 12" single from Monorail before Weatherall's show had finished and this was the record that the postman handed over to me on Tuesday. Get your dancing shoes on.
