Their recorded music can be dark, dense and the lyrics ambiguous, but when you watch them live that kinetic energy is unmistakable. Apparent, visceral and highly addictive.
Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings met as kids and set their bodies against the tide. From the beginning they were obstinately not going to do what was expected.
Under disparate influences that ranged from Enya to Suicide, they began to create the unique sound of their early albums, Tape One, Tape Two, the Mercury Awardwinning DEAD, and then the face slap to the world, White Men Are Black Men Too and their second SAY Award winner, Cocoa Sugar, where the sound was refined and almost bent back, like a disjointed thumb, into an unnatural position.
Their latest album is entitled, Heavy Heavy. The title could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound... or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living,a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes. This new album nails together a collage of influences, ideas, ages and scenes, all bound together with unrestrained energy, passion and soul. And it seems, right now, the most radical thing to do is to have some Soul.
Noted by Pitchfork as perhaps "the band's best yet", Heavy Heavy has resonated with a magnitude of listeners. It garnered raving reviews and glowing features from the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum (Album of the Week), Billboard (Indie Artist of the Month), PopMatters and The Needle Drop, who lauded Heavy Heavy as "The trio's most exciting studio album yet, so well worth the wait". The record received stellar radio support from the likes of KCRW and KEXP, charting on each stations' respective top charts. It was also among the most played records across college and community stations across the US.
A truly enigmatic band with a fabulously hard to define sound, fighting definition.No dress code required. Dancing, not moshing. Hips jerking, feet slipping, brain firing in Catherine Wheel sparks of joy and empathy. Underground but never dark. Still young, after some years, even as the heavy, heavy weight of the world seems to grow day by day.
Heavy Heavy was released on 3 February 2023 via Ninja Tune.
~~~~~~~~~
Young Fathers are DEAD.
Or, rather, DEAD is Young Fathers. Their first full-length album, released in February, 2014, on Anticon and Big Dada has been given the kind of critical appraisal normally held hidden in the filing cabinets of dusty music journos and only brought out, along with the bottle of fine blended whisky for those special occasions, those special rock occasions. You know the kind, when a credible bunch of guitar, bass and drum twenty-somethings from some northern town in the UK or from Indianapolis USA put something together in the studio that reaches out and reminds everyone that modern life isn't rubbish. Which is a weird reaction for a group who sit in some non-categorisable space between genres ancient and modern, who take hiphop and pop and dip it in a tie-dye mix of Ronnettes and krautrock and ragga and dub and post-punk and afropsych... and make something, something, something.
Many years before dropping DEAD the three individuals who became Young Fathers were apprentice young men. 14 years old, meeting in a sweaty dancing circle in the infamous original Bongo Club in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Moving to the in-your-face beats of early noughties hiphop, R&B and Dancehall and then at the end of the night, agreeing to meet at solemn faced would-be producer G's house, to 'make records' on an ancient karaoke machine. The three of them, already looking like their future selves: Alloysious, city street holy man, sad eyes to the stars, past of the Liberian war atrocities buried in childhood scar tissue; Kayus, face exploding from frowns to huge laughter, pure naija boy on the outside but reflective and always feeling far away from his Nigerian home on the inside; and G, quietly watching and waiting for good things to come, practising the serious don't fuck street face for the neds where he grew up, but nurturing a heart of soul.
show less
Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings met as kids and set their bodies against the tide. From the beginning they were obstinately not going to do what was expected.
Under disparate influences that ranged from Enya to Suicide, they began to create the unique sound of their early albums, Tape One, Tape Two, the Mercury Awardwinning DEAD, and then the face slap to the world, White Men Are Black Men Too and their second SAY Award winner, Cocoa Sugar, where the sound was refined and almost bent back, like a disjointed thumb, into an unnatural position.
Their latest album is entitled, Heavy Heavy. The title could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound... or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living,a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes. This new album nails together a collage of influences, ideas, ages and scenes, all bound together with unrestrained energy, passion and soul. And it seems, right now, the most radical thing to do is to have some Soul.
Noted by Pitchfork as perhaps "the band's best yet", Heavy Heavy has resonated with a magnitude of listeners. It garnered raving reviews and glowing features from the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum (Album of the Week), Billboard (Indie Artist of the Month), PopMatters and The Needle Drop, who lauded Heavy Heavy as "The trio's most exciting studio album yet, so well worth the wait". The record received stellar radio support from the likes of KCRW and KEXP, charting on each stations' respective top charts. It was also among the most played records across college and community stations across the US.
A truly enigmatic band with a fabulously hard to define sound, fighting definition.No dress code required. Dancing, not moshing. Hips jerking, feet slipping, brain firing in Catherine Wheel sparks of joy and empathy. Underground but never dark. Still young, after some years, even as the heavy, heavy weight of the world seems to grow day by day.
Heavy Heavy was released on 3 February 2023 via Ninja Tune.
~~~~~~~~~
Young Fathers are DEAD.
Or, rather, DEAD is Young Fathers. Their first full-length album, released in February, 2014, on Anticon and Big Dada has been given the kind of critical appraisal normally held hidden in the filing cabinets of dusty music journos and only brought out, along with the bottle of fine blended whisky for those special occasions, those special rock occasions. You know the kind, when a credible bunch of guitar, bass and drum twenty-somethings from some northern town in the UK or from Indianapolis USA put something together in the studio that reaches out and reminds everyone that modern life isn't rubbish. Which is a weird reaction for a group who sit in some non-categorisable space between genres ancient and modern, who take hiphop and pop and dip it in a tie-dye mix of Ronnettes and krautrock and ragga and dub and post-punk and afropsych... and make something, something, something.
Many years before dropping DEAD the three individuals who became Young Fathers were apprentice young men. 14 years old, meeting in a sweaty dancing circle in the infamous original Bongo Club in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Moving to the in-your-face beats of early noughties hiphop, R&B and Dancehall and then at the end of the night, agreeing to meet at solemn faced would-be producer G's house, to 'make records' on an ancient karaoke machine. The three of them, already looking like their future selves: Alloysious, city street holy man, sad eyes to the stars, past of the Liberian war atrocities buried in childhood scar tissue; Kayus, face exploding from frowns to huge laughter, pure naija boy on the outside but reflective and always feeling far away from his Nigerian home on the inside; and G, quietly watching and waiting for good things to come, practising the serious don't fuck street face for the neds where he grew up, but nurturing a heart of soul.
Their recorded music can be dark, dense and the lyrics ambiguous, but when you watch them live that kinetic energy is unmistakable. Apparent, visceral and highly addictive.
Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings met as kids and set their bodies against the tide. From the beginning they were obstinately not going to do what was expected.
Under disparate influences that ranged from Enya to Suicide, they began to create the unique sound of their early albums, Tape One, Tape Two, the Mercury Awardwinning DEAD, and then the face slap to the world, White Men Are Black Men Too and their second SAY Award winner, Cocoa Sugar, where the sound was refined and almost bent back, like a disjointed thumb, into an unnatural position.
Their latest album is entitled, Heavy Heavy. The title could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound... or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living,a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes. This new album nails together a collage of influences, ideas, ages and scenes, all bound together with unrestrained energy, passion and soul. And it seems, right now, the most radical thing to do is to have some Soul.
Noted by Pitchfork as perhaps "the band's best yet", Heavy Heavy has resonated with a magnitude of listeners. It garnered raving reviews and glowing features from the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum (Album of the Week), Billboard (Indie Artist of the Month), PopMatters and The Needle Drop, who lauded Heavy Heavy as "The trio's most exciting studio album yet, so well worth the wait". The record received stellar radio support from the likes of KCRW and KEXP, charting on each stations' respective top charts. It was also among the most played records across college and community stations across the US.
A truly enigmatic band with a fabulously hard to define sound, fighting definition.No dress code required. Dancing, not moshing. Hips jerking, feet slipping, brain firing in Catherine Wheel sparks of joy and empathy. Underground but never dark. Still young, after some years, even as the heavy, heavy weight of the world seems to grow day by day.
Heavy Heavy was released on 3 February 2023 via Ninja Tune.
~~~~~~~~~
Young Fathers are DEAD.
Or, rather, DEAD is Young Fathers. Their first full-length album, released in February, 2014, on Anticon and Big Dada has been given the kind of critical appraisal normally held hidden in the filing cabinets of dusty music journos and only brought out, along with the bottle of fine blended whisky for those special occasions, those special rock occasions. You know the kind, when a credible bunch of guitar, bass and drum twenty-somethings from some northern town in the UK or from Indianapolis USA put something together in the studio that reaches out and reminds everyone that modern life isn't rubbish. Which is a weird reaction for a group who sit in some non-categorisable space between genres ancient and modern, who take hiphop and pop and dip it in a tie-dye mix of Ronnettes and krautrock and ragga and dub and post-punk and afropsych... and make something, something, something.
Many years before dropping DEAD the three individuals who became Young Fathers were apprentice young men. 14 years old, meeting in a sweaty dancing circle in the infamous original Bongo Club in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Moving to the in-your-face beats of early noughties hiphop, R&B and Dancehall and then at the end of the night, agreeing to meet at solemn faced would-be producer G's house, to 'make records' on an ancient karaoke machine. The three of them, already looking like their future selves: Alloysious, city street holy man, sad eyes to the stars, past of the Liberian war atrocities buried in childhood scar tissue; Kayus, face exploding from frowns to huge laughter, pure naija boy on the outside but reflective and always feeling far away from his Nigerian home on the inside; and G, quietly watching and waiting for good things to come, practising the serious don't fuck street face for the neds where he grew up, but nurturing a heart of soul.
read more
Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and G. Hastings met as kids and set their bodies against the tide. From the beginning they were obstinately not going to do what was expected.
Under disparate influences that ranged from Enya to Suicide, they began to create the unique sound of their early albums, Tape One, Tape Two, the Mercury Awardwinning DEAD, and then the face slap to the world, White Men Are Black Men Too and their second SAY Award winner, Cocoa Sugar, where the sound was refined and almost bent back, like a disjointed thumb, into an unnatural position.
Their latest album is entitled, Heavy Heavy. The title could be a mood, or it could describe the smoothed granite of bass that supports the sound... or it could be a nod to the natural progression of boys to grown men and the inevitable toll of living,a joyous burden, relationships, family, the natural momentum of a group that has been around long enough to witness massive changes. This new album nails together a collage of influences, ideas, ages and scenes, all bound together with unrestrained energy, passion and soul. And it seems, right now, the most radical thing to do is to have some Soul.
Noted by Pitchfork as perhaps "the band's best yet", Heavy Heavy has resonated with a magnitude of listeners. It garnered raving reviews and glowing features from the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum (Album of the Week), Billboard (Indie Artist of the Month), PopMatters and The Needle Drop, who lauded Heavy Heavy as "The trio's most exciting studio album yet, so well worth the wait". The record received stellar radio support from the likes of KCRW and KEXP, charting on each stations' respective top charts. It was also among the most played records across college and community stations across the US.
A truly enigmatic band with a fabulously hard to define sound, fighting definition.No dress code required. Dancing, not moshing. Hips jerking, feet slipping, brain firing in Catherine Wheel sparks of joy and empathy. Underground but never dark. Still young, after some years, even as the heavy, heavy weight of the world seems to grow day by day.
Heavy Heavy was released on 3 February 2023 via Ninja Tune.
~~~~~~~~~
Young Fathers are DEAD.
Or, rather, DEAD is Young Fathers. Their first full-length album, released in February, 2014, on Anticon and Big Dada has been given the kind of critical appraisal normally held hidden in the filing cabinets of dusty music journos and only brought out, along with the bottle of fine blended whisky for those special occasions, those special rock occasions. You know the kind, when a credible bunch of guitar, bass and drum twenty-somethings from some northern town in the UK or from Indianapolis USA put something together in the studio that reaches out and reminds everyone that modern life isn't rubbish. Which is a weird reaction for a group who sit in some non-categorisable space between genres ancient and modern, who take hiphop and pop and dip it in a tie-dye mix of Ronnettes and krautrock and ragga and dub and post-punk and afropsych... and make something, something, something.
Many years before dropping DEAD the three individuals who became Young Fathers were apprentice young men. 14 years old, meeting in a sweaty dancing circle in the infamous original Bongo Club in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Moving to the in-your-face beats of early noughties hiphop, R&B and Dancehall and then at the end of the night, agreeing to meet at solemn faced would-be producer G's house, to 'make records' on an ancient karaoke machine. The three of them, already looking like their future selves: Alloysious, city street holy man, sad eyes to the stars, past of the Liberian war atrocities buried in childhood scar tissue; Kayus, face exploding from frowns to huge laughter, pure naija boy on the outside but reflective and always feeling far away from his Nigerian home on the inside; and G, quietly watching and waiting for good things to come, practising the serious don't fuck street face for the neds where he grew up, but nurturing a heart of soul.
show less
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Great American Music Hall (GAMH)
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859 O'Farrell Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
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