Music
Press
I had the privilege of seeing Nicolas Jaar and Matthew Dear — two of my absolute favorite electronic artists — at the same show at SXSW last week, but it was the group that played before them that I remember best from that night, if not the whole week. Young Fathers have a sound that comes close to an industrial, hip-hop take on TV on the Radio at times, if it really reminds me of anybody, and a stage presence reminiscent of Death Grips.
The Scottish hip-hop group have three vocalists and a percussionist who command the stage in an extremely captivating, “this is not an act because nothing I do is an act” manner much like MC Ride, except they trade his arm spasms for effusive and well-styled dance moves. While those sadly don’t translate to audio, their ability to effortlessly slide between concussive raps and mantra-like singing makes their sound—and stage presence—really stand out from most hip-hop acts. “The Guide” is new song not included on their debut album Tape One, which just made it stateside in January. Definitely give the third track from that record, “Rumbling” a listen as well. - Pretty Much Amazing
Young Fathers könnte das Projekt sein, das sich ein stilistisch weit gereister Indie-Rock-Sammler in einer stillen Stunde mit seiner Plattensammlung ausgedacht hat. Drei Jungs aus Edinburgh gründen eine Basement-Band, deren Plattensammlungen wiederum ein großes Interesse an Leftfield-Rock, R’n’B, Singer/Songwritermusik und HipHop verrät. Erschienen ist das Debüt der Young Fathers auf einem anfangs für seine experimentellen HipHop-Veröffentlichungen bekannt gewordenen kalifornischen Label: Anticon. Es steht heute für genreübergreifende Erkundungen zwischen dem, was einmal schwarzen und was einmal weißen Künstlern zugeschrieben wurde. Dass in dieser hochinteressanten Grauzone noch Raum für richtige Großtaten ist, demonstrieren die Young Fathers mit den acht Tracks auf tape one. Das Album ist clever, klingt beseelt und dreht ein paar Runden in den Sphären futuristischer Klangkünstler. Man höre nur die psychedelische Marschmusik „Dar-Eh Da Da Du“, den unter schwerem Gepolter kämpfenden Popsong „Deadline“ (habe ich da ein Sample aus einem House-Of-Pain-Song gehört?) oder den Afroragga-Trommelworkshop namens „Sister“ direkt im Anschluss. Wohin das alles noch gehen kann? Keine Ahnung. TAPE ONE ist vielleicht die Platte, die Yoni Wolf alias Why? immer schon einmal machen wollte, aber sie dann doch eine Idee zu clever fand. - Musike Express
Had they come out of UK rap's heartlands in south and east London, Young Fathers would seem remarkable enough, but that they call Edinburgh home – Scotland having produced next to no rappers of international note – makes their ascent all the more special.
Their recent signing to Los Angeles alternative hip-hop label Anticon has given the stamp of credibility to a group who have searched since 2008 for their own sound and aesthetic (their earlier history as a boyband is one they would prefer to forget). Were it to end today, Young Fathers' story would already be a triumph for the under-represented multicultural face of the Scottish capital – Alloysious Massaquoi is Liberian by birth, Kayus Bankole's parents are Nigerian migrants, while Graham "G" Hastings hails from Edinburgh's Drylaw housing estate. Though, as this short, sharp shock of a launch show for their Anticon debut mini-album Tape One strongly suggests, there are more electrifying chapters to be written.
Theirs is music of uniqueness, flow and emotion, mining the darker, clubbier end of the hip-hop spectrum, powered by a laptop emitting low bass wobbles and buzzing synth lines, while a live percussionist tribally socks a floor tom. They're just as striking to look at – Massaquoi cuts a particularly stylish figure in vest and leather jacket, a skunk-like streak bleached through his short afro.
Like Young Fathers' name, the TV on the harsh clatter of Deadline – "Don't you turn my home against me / Even if my house is empty" – elliptically evokes gritty notions of fractured families. As the hyperactive synth hook of Rumbling drops, Bankole's limbs wildly flap with such force that he looks as if he is trying to achieve take-off.
When the trio depart the stage for a second time in a barely 30-minute performance, shouts ring out for current single Romance loudly enough to merit another encore. But to no avail: after a long wait for unlikely recognition, Young Fathers clearly intend to greet it firmly on their own terms. - The Guardian
Following the intense, eclectic whirlwind that was their January release ‘TAPE ONE’, Edinburgh hip hop trio Young Fathers are sounding more introspective and soulful on their new track, I Heard. Building on scattered percussion, mournful synths and a delicate falsetto, I Heard has a tone unlike anything the group have put out before, looking inwards with whispered verses and an addictive chanting chorus; this is one that demands a few listens to get it out of your system. - Dummy Mag
From Afro-Scottish crew's 'TAPE TWO,' out June 11 on Anticon
Young Fathers put themselves on the map with January's TAPE ONE, an unusual amalgam of D.A.I.S.Y. raps, post-dubstep beatwork, and soulful art-rock that's been bubbling its way up to the surface ever since. The Edinburgh-based trio is making quick moves to build upon that sticky foundation and will be releasing TAPE TWO on June 11, also via Anticon Records. The new nine-track set kicks off with a gorgeous number called "I Heard," which you can now stream below. Building up from a simple percussive loop and some heartbroken falsetto, the song picks up swells of bass, shimmering synths, and pained harmonies before transitioning into a detail-packed rhyme that drifts through the scene like a warm breeze. When "I Heard" ends, it feels too soon. - Spin
It was only my third gig of 2013, though Young Fathers’ rice ‘n’ pea-powered Shacklewell Arms showing remains one of the finer evenings out of this one thus far. The off-kilt hip hop trio appeared to come of age there and then upon that most oily of stages, and an incontestable highlight came in the surprisingly refined form of a then unknown track as we now know entitled I Heard. You can hear it below, and combining the slow burn balladry en vogue at the moment having been favoured by all and sundry from Tyler, The Creator (Treehome95) to Frank Ocean (his first, his last, his everything) with fizzing rhymes and a perfectly grubby early ’00s-inspired chorus during which the troupe openly profess: “Inside I’m feeling dirty/ It’s only ’cause I’m hurting”, it makes for an unprecedentedly polished composition to epitomise the ineffable fluidity intrinsic to much contemporary R’n'B. However Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and ‘G’ Hastings here acutely pinpoint a raw emotivity absent from much of the genre’s more conventional outpour and, a first to have been lifted from their forthcoming Tape Two, mercifully there’s sure to be a whole load more unorthodoxly Scottish urbanity where this one came from… - Dots and Dashes
Discography
TAPE ONE - EP - Anticon
TAPE TWO - EP - Anticon
Photos
Bio
When we first met Young Fathers, we were left holding our jaws in our palms, lifting the slack as best we could to form the following words: Where in the world do we go from here? “Here,” there, was the Scottish trio’s striking debut EP, the percussively lush and darkly intoxicating Tape One. And the answer to the question is far more logical than expected: Tape Two. Our trepidation wasn’t fear of hearing more from YF, so much as it was of our own inability to describe whatever wrinkle arrived in the rap-song-beat group’s unprecedented style. People were saying things like “what you waited over a decade for the grime movement to curate” and “remind you of the sweet Lofi-Street-Sound of a nice old Ghetto-Blaster”. Thankfully, while reductive, that’s still kinda fair.
The range these young men span from song to song is heroic. They are masters of emotion (“I Heard”), experts with texture (“Mr. Martyr”), incredible with rhythms (“Ebony Sky”), and fierce wielders of noise (“Queen Is Dead”). But they are also capable of being all of these things at once and coming out the other end with an odd masterpiece like “Way Down in the Hole,” which begins like a warm Miguel demo before inhabiting a bombed-out horror score apparently performed by the ghostly inhabitants of the crumpled space between two terraced houses shortly after an air raid. Young Fathers can do this because they have been making music (and art and videos) together since they were 14 years old, and are telepathic besides.
YF are vocalists and perfectionists all three: Alloysious born in Liberia, Kayus raised by Nigerian immigrants, and G who also provides the score. Together, they croon like a left-field rock band or a ‘90s R&B squad, or rhyme like scions sent either from the D.A.I.S.Y. age or escaped from some distant dystopia in Sun Ra’s mothership, and do so over production that pulls as much from African tradition as it does electronic futurism. If their sound or words sometimes seem bleak, it’s only because the world outside is, and they are a mirror reflecting our truths back. But Young Fathers are also our imaginations running weird, finding color in dark corners and dancing in light nobody else sees.
Links
