Sunday, 21 October 2018

Youth & Gaudi 'Astronaut Alchemists' Review








Artist: Youth & Gaudi



Title: Astronaut Alchemists



Label: Liquid Sound Design



Released: Dec 2018









Comprising two producers whose careers have been heavily entwined with dub, simultaneously in the studio. With Youth on bass, Gaudi on keys and taking turns in the knob twiddling studio fx. So on paper this promises to be an album of interest to fans of this genre. Therefore, it stands to reason that the question is does it live up to the expectation?


The album opens with ‘Bass Weapon’ a stereo-typical piece of dub reggae comprising low frequency bass, keys and lots of reverb. Initially, it fulfils what you would expect from a dub reggae tune with nothing to stand out from the crowd. However, around two minutes in there are some uplifting strings which unfortunately are short lived. I felt this was remedied somewhat with ‘The Gods must be Crazy’ a far more interesting piece in my opinion, which although maintains an old skool feel I could imagine enjoying on a speaker shaking sound system.


As I moving through the album I think I’m able to answer my question above. It does live up to expectation in the sense it’s well produced and arguably could hold it’s head high amongst some of the classic albums of the genre. However, where I feel it’s lacking is it’s nothing new even down to the samples on ‘Apollo’ (which were to be expected I guess considering the album title) utilised countless times before.


That said I can imagine the live performance will be rocking and those in and around London at the time the launch party is being held at Bloc in Hackney Wick, London on Friday the 7th of December. You can book your tickets via https://accessallareas.org/listings/youth-gaudi/


Review by Woodzee


Links

https://liquidsounddesignuk.bandcamp.com/album/youth-gaudi-astronaut-alchemists





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