William Doyle's self-extraction from the physical and creative confines of his former four-piece indie-rock band was the start of an emotionally draining three years, culminating in the arrival of East India Youth and a debut album appropriately titled 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER'. The work brings together glorious orchestral pop, noise and motorik Detroit techno, threaded together with ambient and contemporary classical passages. At once uplifting and bleak, both brutally cold and gloriously buoyant, 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER' reaches for new heights in electronic music. and surpasses them.
Collating a world of diverse influences, 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER' sounds like it could only have been made now, by one particularly driven individual, marking the arrival of a significant new voice in British music. And it is Doyle's voice on the four vocal tracks that continues to enthral since the album's release on Stolen Recordings in January 2014, its centrepiece – 'Heaven, How Long' – described by Pitchfork as "a heart-spinning, utterly exhilarating supernova", expressing melancholia, desperation and unbridled joy, all in the space of a verse. The Guardian – whose Breakthrough of 2014 list East India Youth topped – spoke of "a hugely self-assured debut from an artist who knows exactly what he's doing, marking Doyle out as a rare, idiosyncratic talent" and Time Out – who awarded him their Album of The Week – advised "Its legend is well-deserved: a brilliant bedroom album of piercing electronic pop."
The crescendo of East India Youth's year came in October when he was shortlisted for The Mercury Music Prize, alongside FKA Twigs, Anna Calvi, Royal Blood and Damon Albarn.
As Uncut said, in their 9/10 review; "A major new British talent is born."
William Doyle's self-extraction from the physical and creative confines of his former four-piece indie-rock band was the start of an emotionally draining three years, culminating in the arrival of East India Youth and a debut album appropriately titled 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER'. The work brings together glorious orchestral pop, noise and motorik Detroit techno, threaded together with ambient and contemporary classical passages. At once uplifting and bleak, both brutally cold and gloriously buoyant, 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER' reaches for new heights in electronic music. and surpasses them.
Collating a world of diverse influences, 'TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER' sounds like it could only have been made now, by one particularly driven individual, marking the arrival of a significant new voice in British music. And it is Doyle's voice on the four vocal tracks that continues to enthral since the album's release on Stolen Recordings in January 2014, its centrepiece – 'Heaven, How Long' – described by Pitchfork as "a heart-spinning, utterly exhilarating supernova", expressing melancholia, desperation and unbridled joy, all in the space of a verse. The Guardian – whose Breakthrough of 2014 list East India Youth topped – spoke of "a hugely self-assured debut from an artist who knows exactly what he's doing, marking Doyle out as a rare, idiosyncratic talent" and Time Out – who awarded him their Album of The Week – advised "Its legend is well-deserved: a brilliant bedroom album of piercing electronic pop."
The crescendo of East India Youth's year came in October when he was shortlisted for The Mercury Music Prize, alongside FKA Twigs, Anna Calvi, Royal Blood and Damon Albarn.
As Uncut said, in their 9/10 review; "A major new British talent is born."
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